On the Pointlessness of Observation

Abstract

This article attempts to perform an analysis of Franz Kafka’s prose miniature “Absent-minded Window-gazing” geared toward examining the oeuvre of the author of The Trial from the perspective of a poetics of the moment. The text analyzed both provides us with information about how the construction of the subject in Kafka diverges from the modern understanding of subjectivity, and allows us to hone the precision of a scholarly method that breaks with the modern formulation of the category of an epiphany.