This post is due Thursday, Feb 24th, along with 4 comments to your peers for BP 3.
For BP 4, two to three paragraphs using the following questions as a starting point for Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony.” Make sure your paragraphs work together to present an interpretation of the story. Don鈥檛 just answer the questions. Use them as starting points to write an interpretation of the deeper meanings of the story. Make sure the paragraphs adhere together to make a point you want to make about a productive way to interpret the story.
- What was a penal colony?
- What does the apparatus do?
- What does it suggest to you that the place they are in is so hot, especially for the officer?
- What does “teahouse” and “cane chair” suggest to you about who the colonizers could be.
- How does the officer describe the feelings and experiences of those who are executed by the apparatus?
- How might the writing of the apparatus serve as a symbol? In other words, if the apparatus writes the sentence upon the condemned person鈥檚 body, how does this serve as a symbol as to the kind of assertions colonizers would declare against those who have been colonized?
- Why does the officer throw himself on the apparatus?
- What are some examples of systems where condemned people did not have due process?
- What would be the motivation of a person or system denying another of due process?
Remember, class on Feb 27th will be asynchronouse. I’ll be posting an assignment for that day shortly. Follow the syllabus for the readings!
