Introduction & Overview of In the Penal Colony

This Study Guide consists of approximately 40 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of In the Penal Colony.

Introduction & Overview of In the Penal Colony

This Study Guide consists of approximately 40 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of In the Penal Colony.
This section contains 293 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy the In the Penal Colony Study Guide

In the Penal Colony Summary & Study Guide Description

In the Penal Colony Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand the book. This study guide contains the following sections:

This detailed literature summary also contains Bibliography on In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka.

Franz Kafka wrote the novella-length story "In the Penal Colony" while he was writing his novel The Tnalvn. 1914, and it was first published in 1919. The story of an explorer's tour of an island known for its unusual capital punishment machine, "In the Penal Colony" took just two weeks to complete, although Kafka was dissatisfied with the ending and rewrote it several times in later years. Since the story's publication in English translation in 1948, it has come to be seen, along with The Metamorphosis, as one of Kafka's most significant shorter works. Critical responses to the story have largely been concerned with interpreting its allegorical aspects, and with placing such interpretations in the context of Kafka's other writings and of certain biographical issues, such as his relationship with his father. There has been no agreement on the allegory it presents, and recent criticism has come to accept this fact. There is agreement, however, that the story's theme is religious, and that it is a story which sets out to examine a shift in the relationship between human existence and divine law. Accordingly, Kafka's Jewish heritage, and in particular the Jewish traditions of the parable and kabbala, have been considered important issues in interpreting the story. Kafka's detached narrative style—in which character description is minimal and the author's presence unobtrusive—is one of the admired qualities of this story, and it is a strong factor in its haunting effect. "In the Penal Colony" is considered by many critics to be an allegory comparing the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, with the officer's willing sacrifice serving as an analogy to Jesus Christ's suffering and death. Others have viewed the story as prophetic of the Nazi death camps of World War II.

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This section contains 293 words
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In the Penal Colony from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.