“In a penal colony” is a story by Franz Kafka , written in October 1914 and published in 1919. Together with the short stories “ Sentence ” and “ Transformation ”, the story is a collection of “Kara”.
| In the penal colony | |
|---|---|
| In der strafkolonie | |
| Genre | Story |
| Author | Franz Kafka |
| Original language | Deutsch |
| Date of writing | October 1914 |
| Date of first publication | 1919 |
Content
Story
An unnamed traveler arrives at a penal colony on a remote island. He is invited to attend the execution of the guilty soldier. The execution was the placement of the convict in a "special kind of apparatus" for executions. The device works according to the following principle: it scratches a commandment violated by it on a person’s body, then scratches the same words again, only deeper. This goes on for 12 hours, at the end the offender dies. This unit is very popular with the officer who manages it. But the new commandant of the colony wants to refuse such an execution, which is opposed by an officer who considers this apparatus to be very necessary. The officer asks the Traveler to support him at the colony command meeting, but the Traveler refuses. Then the officer lays down in this apparatus and executes himself.
Actors
- Traveler
- the officer
- New commandant
- Convicted
- Soldier
The characters of this short story are very characteristic of the work of Franz Kafka, since they have no names.
Significance
Thanks to this work, Kafka began to be considered [ who? ] “A prophet of the 20th century”, as this short story described the atrocious bullying (or rather, executions) of people in German death camps during the Second World War .
Theatrical performances
- 1962 - “In the Correctional Colony”, ballet to the music of Hartung (E. Hartung), choreographer T. Gzovskaya , German Opera , West Berlin.