Stilemi kafkiani e stile amministrativo

Abstract

The paper proposes that certain Kafkaesque stylistic elements, which are sometimes described in seemingly contradictory ways, can be traced back to the typical features of the legal-administrative style of his time. Kafka’s masterful use of this style in his professional writing as a high-level clerk at the Insurance Institute in Prague, exemplifies this concept. To support this hypothesis, the paper first summarizes the peculiarities of Kafka’s literary prose and the typical characteristics of legal-administrative language, thus enabling a comparison of the two styles. For the same purpose, it also presents an analysis of two samples of Kafka’s administrative writing: the Rede zur Amtseinsetzung des Direktors (1908) and the Jahresbericht 1909: Unfallverhütungsmaßregel bei Holzhobelmaschinen.