Kafka's Stereoscopes

In 1911 Franz Kafka encountered the Kaiser Panorama: a stereoscopic peep show offering an illusion of three-dimensional depth. After the experience he began to emulate the apparatus in his literary sketches developing a style we might call stereoscopic juxtaposing like the optical stereoscope two images of the same object seen from slightly different perspectives.<br/><br/>Isak Winkel Holm argues that Kafka's stereoscopic style is crucial to an understanding of the relation between literature and politics in Kafka's work. At the level of content the stereoscopic style offers a representation of the basic order of a specific community. At the level of form the stereoscopic style is structured as the juxtaposition of two dissimilar images of the same community. At the level of function finally the style provokes a reconsideration and perhaps even a reconfiguration of the social order itself. <br/><br/>With insights from literary studies philosophical aesthetics and political theory <i>Kafka's Stereoscopes</i> offers a detailed but highly readable argument for the relevance of Kafka's literary works in today's political reality.