Freedom From the Free Will - On Kafka''s Laughter

Informationen zum Autor Dimitris Vardoulakis is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Western Sydney University, Australia. He has written and edited several books, including (with Andrew Benjamin) Sparks Will Fly: Benjamin and Heidegger , also published by SUNY Press. Klappentext Brings Kafka's fiction into conversation with philosophy and political theory. Many of Kafka's narratives place their heroes in situations of confinement. Gregor Samsa is locked in his room in the Metamorphosis , and the land surveyor in The Castle is stuck in the village unable either to leave or to gain access to the castle. Dimitris Vardoulakis argues that Kafka constructs these plots of confinement in order to laugh at his heroes' futile attempts to express their will. In this way, Kafka emerges as a critic of the free will and as a proponent of a different kind of freedom: one focused within the confines of one's experience and mediated by one's circumstances. Vardoulakis contends that his sense of humor is the key to understanding Kafka as a political thinker. Laughter, in this account, is the tool used to deconstruct power. By placing Kafka in dialogue with philosophy and political theory, Vardoulakis shows that Kafka can give us invaluable insights into how to be free-and how to laugh.

A propos de l'auteur

Dimitris Vardoulakis is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Western Sydney University, Australia. He has written and edited several books, including (with Andrew Benjamin) Sparks Will Fly: Benjamin and Heidegger, also published by SUNY Press.

Détails du produit

• Auteurs: Dimitris Vardoulakis, Vardoulakis Dimitris
• Edition: State University of New York Press
• Langues: Anglais
• Format d'édition: Livre Relié
• Sortie: 01.09.2016
• EAN: 9781438462394
• ISBN: 978-1-4384-6239-4
• Pages: 212
• Thèmes: SUNY series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy; Suny Contemporary Continental
• Catégories: Littérature spécialisée > Philosophie, religion > Philosophie: général, ouvrages de référence; Sciences humaines, art, musique > Linguistique et littérature > Linguistique et littérature allemandes; PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Modern, Western philosophy from c 1800, Western Philosophy, From C 1900 -