Kafkan Study

In his writings on Franz Kafka, Benjamin develops a conception of study. The conception of study pertains to an exercise that Benjamin observes in some characters from Kafka’s novels and stories. Benjamin also suggests that this exercise of study is enacted by Kafka’s works themselves. An implication of Benjamin’s presentation of Kafka is that all study should be Kafkan. This essay will endeavor to indicate what might be entailed by study that is Kafkan in Benjamin’s sense. Themes to be addressed are the following: the justice of aligning study with nothing, the physicality offsetting myths of advancement, the importance of demonstrative failure in study, and the orientation of study by exceptions and extremes.