仪式与暴力——论卡夫卡《在流放地》

卡夫卡的《在流放地》展示了新旧时代交替过程中，仪式与暴力的运行方式的变迁。在古旧的刑罚体系中，绘制仪、耙等工具以不同的功能在十二个小时的行刑仪式中展演暴力；而人则在仪式化的暴力下，被降级为动物性、工具性的存在，丧失反抗能力，臣服于暴力。作品中新指挥官上任后的新时代，仪式式微，权力空间从公共景观转向封闭场所，惩罚对象从肉体转向灵魂，暴力隐匿。但是，式微的仪式仍有着潜在的力量，暴力终会以某种形式复归。

Ritual and Violence: on Kafka's In the Penal Colony

In the Penal Colony, Kafka shows the changing operation of Ritual and Violence in the process of transition from the old to the new . In ancient system of punishment, tools with different functions such as the Designer and the Harrow were used to exhibit ritual violence within twelve hours. And in the ritualized violence, people, deprived of the power to resist and relegated to the animal or the machine, finally surrendered themselves to the violence. In the ritually declining new era, when the new command took the office, the power space turns from the public landscape to the closed space, and so does the object of the punishment from the body to the soul. Accordingly, the violence is concealed. But the potentiality of declining ritual will eventually recur in the form of violence.