Traumatized Identities in Franz Kafka's “In the Penal Colony

This paper considers Franz Kafka's (۱۹۲۴-۱۸۸۳) short story; "In the Penal Colony" (۱۹۱۹) in the light of the theory of trauma based on Cathy Caruth's (۱۹۵۵- ) critical views. Trauma can create a psychic wound on the victim's mind that forces him or her to respond psychologically. Based on some traumatic envents that some individuals experience they get traumatized and their identities are affected by such traumatic effects. Thus they behave abnormally and out of control. "In the Penal Conoly", the characters' identities are traumatized and are diagnoized interms of post-traumatic stress disorder which are the symptoms of a traumatic experience. For instance, the condemend Man, the Traveller, and the solider are caught in a system in which they suffer from the negative and distressing image of themselves. The Traveller is traumatized by watching the shatterd body of the officer and this can traumatize his identity. In Kafa's story, all the characters are punished without any reason. In fact, they are trapped in a labyrinth in which there is no way out and they are condemend to death. The characters seem to struggle for survival to prevent death, but the more they try, the less they are successful. Kafa himself experiences all the traumas, including individual trauma, historical trauma, and cultural trauma. Similary, in "The Penal Colony", the characters experience individual trauma that ruins their identities as much as possible. The island that is depicted in the story is like a labyrnith that the characters are traumatized individually. Therefore, Kafa can portray his traumas that he experiences by the World Wars in his short story, "In the Penal Colony".

کلیدواژه ها:

Trauma ، Post-traumatic stress disorder ، Labyrnith ، Identitiy ، Survival ، Death ، Psychic Wound.