Kafkův litotes

Kafka is a virtuoso of double negation: he repeatedly uses the uncertainty already inherent in everyday usage - what is not untrue may not yet be true - as part of a cunning strategy. A detailed analysis of Kafka's language, the starting points chosen for the narrative, as well as his private letters shows how this author subtly builds an uncertain world made up of rules, exceptions and exceptions to exceptions. 

The rhetorical figure called litotes, which may appear to be a stylistic pun, reveals itself on closer inspection as a complex figure of thought. Kafka's texts do not focus on an unequivocal "untruth", but are rather interested in what is "not untrue". In doing so, both Kafka's biographical dilemma and the power from which nothing is excluded come into play. Mayer's analysis touches on aspects drawn from rhetoric, logic, political theory and jurisprudence.

Czech edition