Power in Photographs: Franz Kafka

This chapter explores the fascination with portrait photographs in Kafka’s writings and argues that his chief interest lies in the power of photographs. It first examines Kafka’s exchange of letters and photographs with his fiancée Felice Bauer, highlighting his attempt at interpreting the photographs and his concern with “unreturned gazes” and gestures. Next, it examines the role of photographs in The Man Who Disappeared, suggesting that the contemplation of photographs in Kafka’s fiction reveals the characters’ emotional attachments, while at the same time exposing ambivalences and dissonances that promote a liberation process. A third section discusses Kafka’s treatment of politically charged photographs, such as lynching photos and photos from the First World War, suggesting that Kafka questions what kind of identification such images create and explores the sinister and violent aspects of photographs circulating early in the twentieth century. The concluding section considers how the photographed subject in Kafka’s day was inscribed in a set of power relations that pulled toward identity or anonymity.