Introduction

Kafka’s short story »Der Bau« is considered by many scholars to be the »culmination of his later work.«1 Although this particular narrative may not be as popular in literary analysis as others (e.g. »Das Urteil« or »Die Verwandlung«), there exists nonetheless a plethora of interpretations published on this multilayered, underground space. »Der Bau« first appeared in 1928 in the literary journal Witiko and then was later published in 1931 in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer, the first posthumous collection of Kafka’s short stories edited by Max Brod and Hans-Joachim Schoeps. The actual date of composition is debated. Some scholars claim that the narrative may have been written in the fall of 1923; others state that it was Kafka’s last piece ever penned. However, according to Dora Dymant, Kafka’s partner who remained with him until his death, work on »Der Bau« took place during the winter of 1923/1924.2 During this time, Kafka stayed with Dora in a pension in Berlin-Steglitz. It was here that Kafka benefitted from the peaceful atmosphere his room on the outskirts of the big city offered. The following excerpt from a letter addressed to Max Brod illustrates the city-countryside gap well:

Du mußt auch bedenken, daß ich hier halb ländlich lebe, weder unter dem grausamen, noch aber auch unter dem pädagogischen Druck des eigentlichen Berlin. Das ist auch verwöhnend. Ich war einmal mit Dir bei Josty, einmal bei Emmy, einmal bei Pua, einmal bei Wertheim, um mich photographieren zu lassen, einmal um mir Geld zu holen, einmal um mir eine Wohnung anzusehn – das sind gewiß alle meine Ausflüge nach Berlin in diesen 4 Wochen gewesen und von fast allen kam ich elend zurück und tief dankbar, daß ich in Steglitz wohne. Mein »Potsdamer Platz« ist der Steglitzer Rathausplatz, dort fahren zwei oder drei Elektrische, dort vollzieht sich ein kleiner Verkehr, dort sind die Filialen von Ull-stein, Mosse und Scherl, und aus den ersten Zeitungsseiten, die dort aushängen, sauge ich das Gift, das ich knapp noch ertrage, manchmal (gerade wird im Vorzimmer von Straßenkämpfen gesprochen) augenblicksweise auch nicht ertrage –, aber dann verlasse ich diese Öffentlichkeit und verliere mich, wenn ich noch die Kraft dazu habe, in den stillen herbstlichen Alleen. Meine Straße ist die letzte annähernd städtische, dann löst sich alles in den Frieden von Gärten und Villen auf, jede Straße ist ein friedlicher Gartenspazierweg oder kann es sein.3

The »halb-ländlich« nature of the place in which Kafka took refuge, finding rest and peace within the gardens around his flat, bordered the beginnings of city life with its poisonous atmosphere, pedagogical pressure, hyperinflation and street fights.4 In an interview, Dora reflects on her time with Kafka in Berlin-Steglitz and describes the daunting task of leaving his secure space in the country to cross into town to run errands:

It was the time of the inflation. Kafka suffered badly under the conditions. He had a rigorous attitude towards himself. Whatever might happen around him, he had no right to shut himself off from it. So, the way to town was always a kind of Golgotha for him. He almost broke down physically under it.5

With such a backdrop, one could argue that the stage is set for the burrow itself and the animal’s »Golgotha« experience.6 Indeed, many approach Kafka’s works in this fashion, closely examining the setting in which the texts are written in an attempt to pinpoint specific places which surface in his writings. Yet Kafka intentionally omits the names of buildings, rivers and streets when writing his short stories, thus according his literature phantasmal and fantastic aspects.7 In other words, ambiguity is a necessary, intentional element in Kafka’s writings. The following study uses the example of »Der Bau« to demonstrate the function of ambiguity and explain the significance of its defining role. Through close examination of relevant passages, drawing on and integrating a variegated array of sources, this work offers a unique approach by presenting new perspectives which have not been discussed in Kafka scholarship regarding his late narrative, »Der Bau.« A thorough analysis of the text – more specifically, of the structure created, the nature of sound perceived, the atmosphere experienced and the acts performed by the protagonist – reveals a biographical parallel which, although often marginalized in the secondary literature, is both useful and instructive. The findings of this study will reveal that without an understanding of Kafka as a Jewish writer, a full understanding of his work, in this case »Der Bau,« is impossible.

Many scholars argue that space in Kafka’s world remains too vague for proper analysis. In the case of »Der Bau,« one scholar comments that the German word Bau »can mean the process of building, construction; the result of building, the edifice; the structure, the make (of a plant, of a novel…); a jail; a burrow, a hole in the ground, a mine.«8 With so many options to choose from, the animal’s creation may seem to defy spatial confinement. However, a close reading of the text shows that ample detail is provided of this underground, imagined space to conceptualize pictorially the complex, heterogeneous structure designed by the animal. In the first chapter of this work, I present the narrator’s descriptions of his creation and give particular attention to the structure of the labyrinth from a spatial-theoretical perspective.9 The result of this analysis demonstrates that the labyrinthine entrance of the animal’s structure fulfills the outer shape and inner outline of a prison similar to Jeremy Bentham’s draft for the Panopticon. The panoptic design of the animal’s structure is precisely that which allows for constant visibility. Michel Foucault describes the function of such totalitarian architecture as follows: »Le thème du Panopticon –à la fois surveillance et observation, sûreté et savoir, individualisation et totalisation, isolement et transparence – a trouvé dans la prison son lieu privilégié de réalisation.«10 This interweaving of polar elements under monitored living conditions creates the unique dynamic at work within the structure of the burrow which inevitably shapes the animal’s behavior, causing him to oscillate between experiencing feelings of security and anxiety.

In the second chapter, an exploration of sound is conducted. Although noise or, more precisely, music plays a significant role in many of Kafka’s texts, »Der Bau« is distinct. Due to the topography of an underground burrow, the acoustic sphere is deceptive. Moreover, the protagonist in this narrative is not responsible for the emission of sound perceived in his structure. Unlike the narrator of »Forschungen eines Hundes« who hears a sonic effect and sees the source of its sound, the burrow dweller spends his time scouring his various rooms and passageways in search of a noise whose source remains unknown. In order to better understand the topological quandary caused by the dislocation of sound from a spatial point and the effects of such an experience, I turn to Michel Chion’s research on acousmatic sound and Pierre Schaeffer’s modes of listening. Textual evidence confirms that the gap between source and cause serves as a breeding ground for anxiety and keeps the animal behind a veil, allowing the acousmêtre to retain its characteristics of being heard but never seen.11 Since the source of sound remains invisible, the animal’s own existence is dragged into a noise vortex which leaves him bewildered, causes him to raise ontological questions and scrutinize all his endeavors. His only sense of peace is derived from silence. Yet those peaceful moments of tranquility are few and far between as the hissing sound discovered in his structure proves to be »unpredictable in its nature and at the same time relentlessly persistent, both vacillating and adamantly constant, erratic and inflexible, fickle and obdurate […].«12 Since failure to transcend the noise through reduced listening results in failure to diffuse uncertainty, the burrow dweller’s only solution, then, is to resituate the sound within a spatial context as a way to resolve ambiguity.

The desire to link cause to effect leads him to explore further the architectural structure and soundscape of his burrow. The result, however, is one which only substantiates the animal’s conundrum of not being able to escape the all-seeing eye and acousmatic sound. Such conditions create a precarious situation, evoking disorientation, ambivalence and anxiety in the burrow dweller. In the third chapter, focus shifts to the environment the protagonist experiences. A close study of the emotional climate within the burrow shows that ambiguity is the result of the tension between the polar elements which are at work within and without the structure. In Kafka’s »Bau,« the line of convergence between antipodes (e.g. freedom/confinement, silence/noise, ephemerality/eternity, inside/outside, sleep/wakefulness, construction/destruction, theology/nihilism, reality/fantasy, etc.) is severed or even at times blurred, which means that opposites are able to mingle through the interstices at the threshold. To illustrate the dynamic at work within this liminal space,...