The under attorney

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The sub- public prosecutor is a prose fragment by Franz Kafka that was written at the end of 1914 and can be found in the bequeathed writings and fragments.

A sub-public prosecutor who obviously rates his professional skills much higher than his professional environment does, has become entangled in the imaginary coming to terms with an official failure, which, however, is not discussed in more detail.

Emergence

This fragment from the posthumous writings was written in 1914, while Kafka was struggling to advance his novel The Trial, in which he also produced the prose piece Der Dorfschullehrer in December and at the same time tackled the prose piece at hand.

These are records between December 1914 and March 1915 as part of the so-called Konvolute , the present one referred to as the "Unteraatsanwaltkonvolut".

The piece cannot be found in all commercially available Kafka editions, but it is mentioned by current biographers and publications. (See Reiner Stach Kafka The Years of Decisions , website The Kafka Project by Mauro Nervi.)

content

The content of the fragment is actually only revealed from behind. An under attorney has a tremendous disgust with the district judge, who, in his opinion, is extremely stupid, as is the rest of the world. The district judge is only mentioned in passing in the following, his relationship to the under-prosecutor remains unclear. Rather, the reader now learns of a disciplinary matter which the Under Prosecutor would like to see reopened and in which he is to receive satisfaction.

Now the real case of the under-prosecutor comes to the language, who was involved in a lawsuit on lese majesty 15 years ago and from the outcome of these proceedings has made great hopes for his professional advancement. Therefore, he has taken on this matter in an extremely intense manner and made it his own completely.

Descriptions of the processes at that time follow. The under attorney sees the defense attorney in the proceedings as a confused, ridiculous little man with fidgeting feet and a bald head. But he joins his motion to continue the trial in public, which amazes the other judges. In his response to the application, however, the sub-public prosecutor merely touches on " the insult itself as something irrelevant in a few words."

Narrative perspective

The narrative perspective is indefinite. Not the Assistant Public Prosecutor told directly, but not consistently an authorial narrator. There are passages that reflect an authorial view. For example, the actually ironic sentence: It is in and of itself very regrettable for the personal circumstances of the Under Prosecutor that he only has such a low rank [...]. The above-mentioned sentence about the irrelevance of the insult also testifies to how the under prosecutor is narrated from the outside.

In large parts of the fragment, however, the direct view of the sub-prosecutor predominates, and the more so, the more he is involved in the subject. He speaks intensely about how he has immersed himself in the preparation for this process in an almost manic way, in exactly the same way he describes the bizarre processes in the process itself. So the reader is included in his perspective and experiences the shift in reality which the protagonist obviously suffers from.

Form and text analysis

The fragment begins in the middle of a sentence, which is about hunts for abominations and the district judge as a target. The final sentence "The hussars rode through the dark, narrow alley" is apparently unrelated. The fragment character emerges very clearly here.

The text contains several direct speeches, whereby it mostly contains encouraging, calming words which the under prosecutor either calls out to himself or which allegedly high-ranking persons from the legal system address him and promise him professional satisfaction.

The real problem of the sub-public prosecutor, which is likely to be the professional failure in dealing with this disciplinary procedure, is never explicitly mentioned. He had hoped for a promotion to the tenth public prosecutor, but this has not happened 15 years later.

Instead of letting a court case, which is by its nature insignificant, take an inconspicuous course, he goes into abstruse considerations and devotes an inordinate amount of energy to the case, which preoccupies him almost day and night. This intensive preoccupation does not lead to his solving the case brilliantly, but to the astonishment of the court he literally broke away from the matter itself. One does not experience the direct consequences for the under-prosecutor, only the frustration that persists over the years with his professional situation, which is clearly evident at the beginning of the play.

References to other Kafka works

This fragment from 1915 contains, on the one hand, the subject of the legal system similar to The Trial , on which Kafka tried to work at the same time. There are the hierarchies of jurisdiction, but also the absurdity of processes and people, which on the one hand are ridiculous and on the other hand oppressive.

But there are also similarities to Der Dorfschullehrer (The Giant Mole), which was created at the same time . There is something irrational about the way in which the two protagonists of this play, namely the merchant and the teacher, wage a bitter fight over the existence of a giant mole, which has detached itself from the actual facts.

Self-testimony

Kafka diary entries:

January 4, 1915: “It's all useless. If I can't chase the stories through the nights, they break out and get lost, as is now the case with 'The Under Prosecutor'. "

January 6, 1915: “Village school teacher and public prosecutor temporarily given up. But also unable to continue the process. "

output

  • Post-processed writings and fragments I Edited by Malcom Pasley (Born / Neumann / Schillemeit) Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag pp. 217–224 ISBN 3-596-15700-5

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reiner Stach: Kafka The Years of Decisions S. Fischer Verlag 2004 ISBN 3-596-16187-8 pp. 583, 586
  2. ↑ Posthumous writings and fragments I Malcolm Pasley / Born / Neumann / Schillemeit ISBN 3-596-15700-5 1993 Appendix content p. 2
  3. ^ Kafka project

Web links