In the ‘age of things’ which took place at the beginning of the 20th century, and was characterized by an increase in the production of goods due to industrialization, Kafka is already taking precedence through various perspectives and problems re...
In the ‘age of things’ which took place at the beginning of the 20th century, and was characterized by an increase in the production of goods due to industrialization, Kafka is already taking precedence through various perspectives and problems related to objects receiving attention today. It goes beyond a simple understanding of things that are perceived as passive and instrumental objects or as fetishistic objects by human subjects and focuses on the thingness and behaviors of objects and the responsibilities of humans in relation to things.
In the unfinished short story “Blumfeld”, Kafka embodies the ‘living, moving, rebellious and stubborn’ objectivity that escapes the subjective grasp of the subject throughout a narrative of the confrontation between the protagonist, Blumfeld and the two celluloid balls he encounters by chance in his room. This study examines this objectivity in relation to Heidegger's “unzuhanden” thingness, Latour's agent, and Marx's fetishism.