How pathetically scanty my self-knowledge is compared with, say, my knowledge of my room. There is no such thing as observation of the inner world, as there is of the outer world.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Quote by Kafka
Kafka once said:
How pathetically scanty my self-knowledge is compared with, say, my knowledge of my room. There is no such thing as observation of the inner world, as there is of the outer world.
Relate this quote to Metamorphosis specifically and/or to the concepts underlying existentialism and surrealism.
How pathetically scanty my self-knowledge is compared with, say, my knowledge of my room. There is no such thing as observation of the inner world, as there is of the outer world.
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Kafka's quote about knowing the "outter world" more than the "inner world" directly applies to his novella, The Metamorphosis. It specifically relates to Gregor.
During the entire novella, Gregor never really evaluated his life, or feelings, but instead the one's of those around him. After turning into a vermin he noticed things outside of the window he had never seen beofre, and how his family acted. However, he was mostly upset that he could no longer work to support them financially.
Gregor had no personal goals, desires, or hobbies that he was upset about missing out on. Gregor was not connected with his own soul, but only cared about the feelings of those around him.
Existentialism is tied in with this quote through humanism. Gregor never pursuited his own identity, but Kafka's quote is talking about finding one's identity by getting to know their "inner room" or soul.
This quote relates to Gregor's lack of self-knowledge in The Metamorphosis. When Gregor fist wakes up as a bug, he barely even notices his new body and thinks only of his family and his work. He knows and cares little about himself, as his existance has revolved entirely around pleasing his boss so he can provide for his family. Gregor notices his "outer world", such as the members of his family and the people at his work, but he has mostly ignored his own "inner world", and has therefore lost his self-identity.
This quote also demonstrates the existentialist philosophy that one's choices determine one's essence. In this quote, Kafka says that he cannot find his "inner world" by observing it. Instead, he must make choices to help him understand himself and find "self-knowledge".
The 'Inner' and 'Outer' worlds directly correlate with the tenet that the world in which we live in is absurd by nature. The entirety of The Metamorphosis is based around Gregor stumbling about a surreal reality, disconcerted with everything in the outer world, all the things he can no longer access as a bug, instead of the inner. He says there is no observation of the inner world and this fits perfectly within the specter of the surreal views of existentialism.
The idea of existence preceding essence is also seen, as Gregor's past life is more of a definition for his existence than is his physical form, predetermined by fate, as a beetle.
Kafka's fascination with existentialism is somewhat obscured by many of the things that he said and wrote during his life. He claims that "the inner world" is something which cannot be observed, in reference to his own soul. Pushing off from the premise that this metaphor conveys Kafka's darker conception of life as unsatisfying and incapable of identifying soul and emotion, we can almost classify this quotation as more nihilistic than existentialist. Nihilsm essentially asserts that life is void and without purpose and all it's explanantions which have proposed by the sciences and humanities have been flase depictions of what it truly beholds. Many of the most well known contributors to the existentialist movement, helped ignite the philosphy of nihilism- but they differ in their conclusion of life as a whole. Nihilism asserts that life is meaningless and incapable of being. This quote is suspended between the two philosophies. Kafka is admitting that he knows more about his surroundings than he does himself, because he is the supposed more complex concept in this context. However, he contradicts this statement by asserting that the "inner world" is something which cannot be observed or attained. Thus, we are able to assume one of two possible explanations for why an understanding of one's existence. The first, in using existentialist philosophy only, would come to this conclusion based on the assumption that angst against oneself(frustration due to existence) is capable of meaning/purpose in life. The other, in using nihilistic philosophy, would come to the conclusion that this angst and Kafka's self in general, is not capable of purpose.
Although Kafka is a published Nihilist writer (We see this majorly exemplified in the melancholy, meaningless overtones in The Trial), this quote is not necessarily nihilist thinking, which would emphasize the meaninglessness of the individual. It rather suggests that the individual's knowledge of oneself is meaningless, corresponding to existential theory.
Existentialism stresses that it is not one's inner self that defines identity, but rather one's actions. The "inner world" is not a tangible plane of existence like the outer, and therefore is unimportant. Kafka claims that the information gained through introspection is dwarfed by simply looking around a room. This absurdity helps to reinforce the concept that we only exist the way we are perceived.
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