In the Penal Colony
Encyclopedia
"In the Penal Colony" (also translated as In the Penal Settlement) is a short story
by Franz Kafka
written in German
in October 1914, revised in November 1918, and first published in October 1919.
The story is set in an unnamed penal colony
. Internal clues and the setting on an island suggest Octave Mirbeau
's The Torture Garden
as an influence. As in some of Kafka's other writings, the narrator in this story seems detached from, or perhaps numbed by, events that one would normally expect to be registered with horror.
In the Penal Colony describes the last use of an elaborate torture
and execution device that carves the sentence of the condemned prisoner on his skin in a script before letting him die, all in the course of twelve hours. As the plot unfolds, the reader learns more and more about the machine, including its origin, and original justification.
an dignitary and visitor. In the original German, the Explorer is referred to as "der Forschungsreisender,"—which is closer in translation to traveler/researcher/voyager—or simply as "der Reisende".
the executed experience in their last six hours in the machine.
Eventually it becomes clear that the use of the machine, and its associated process of justice
where the accused is always instantly found guilty
, has fallen out of favor with the current Commandant
. The Officer is nostalgic regarding the torture machine and the values that were initially associated with it. As the last proponent of the machine, he strongly believes in its form of justice and the infallibility of the previous Commandant, who designed and built the device. In fact, the Officer carries its blueprints with him and is the only person who can properly decipher them; no one else is allowed to handle these documents.
The Officer begs the Explorer to speak to the current Commandant on behalf of the machine's continued use. He refuses to do so, although he says he will not speak against it and will leave before he can be called to give an official account. The Officer realizes that this will be the machine's last use; he frees the Condemned and sets up the machine for himself, with the words "Be Just" to be written on him. However, the machine malfunctions due to its advanced state of disrepair; instead of its usual elegant operation, it quickly stabs the Officer to death, denying him the mystical experience of the prisoners he executed.
Accompanied by the Soldier and the Condemned, the Explorer makes his way to a tea house
in which he is shown the grave of the old Commandant. Its stone is set so low that a table can easily be placed over it; the inscription states his followers' belief that he will rise from the dead someday and take control of the colony once more. As the Explorer prepares to leave by boat, the Soldier and the Condemned try to board but are repelled.
, in the liner notes of the Mothers of Invention album We're Only in It for the Money
, recommends reading the short story before listening to the track "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny."
Ian Curtis
of the band Joy Division
was inspired by "In the Penal Colony" to write the song "Colony" from the album Closer
.
The execution device is similar to the Blood Quill utilized by Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter series. The magical quill, however, writes with the blood of the user as ink, and what is written is carved onto the user's hand; scars are left with continuous use. It is considered a brutal device of torture.
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
by Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
written in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
in October 1914, revised in November 1918, and first published in October 1919.
The story is set in an unnamed penal colony
Penal colony
A penal colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general populace by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory...
. Internal clues and the setting on an island suggest Octave Mirbeau
Octave Mirbeau
Octave Mirbeau was a French journalist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, novelist, and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, while still appealing to the literary and artistic avant-garde...
's The Torture Garden
The Torture Garden (novel)
The Torture Garden is a novel written by the French journalist, novelist and playwright Octave Mirbeau and was first published in 1899, during the Dreyfus Affair...
as an influence. As in some of Kafka's other writings, the narrator in this story seems detached from, or perhaps numbed by, events that one would normally expect to be registered with horror.
In the Penal Colony describes the last use of an elaborate torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
and execution device that carves the sentence of the condemned prisoner on his skin in a script before letting him die, all in the course of twelve hours. As the plot unfolds, the reader learns more and more about the machine, including its origin, and original justification.
Roles
There are only four characters, each named according to their role in the story. The Officer is the machine's operator, the Condemned is a man scheduled for execution, the Soldier is responsible for guarding the Condemned, and the Explorer is a EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an dignitary and visitor. In the original German, the Explorer is referred to as "der Forschungsreisender,"—which is closer in translation to traveler/researcher/voyager—or simply as "der Reisende".
- The Traveler
- The Officer
- The Condemned
- The Soldier
Synopsis
The story focuses on the Explorer, who is encountering the brutal machine for the first time. Everything about the machine and its purpose is told to him by the Officer, while the Soldier and the Condemned (who is unaware that he has been sentenced to die) placidly watch nearby. The Officer tells of the religious epiphanyReligious ecstasy
Religious ecstasy is an altered state of consciousness characterized by greatly reduced external awareness and expanded interior mental and spiritual awareness which is frequently accompanied by visions and emotional/intuitive euphoria...
the executed experience in their last six hours in the machine.
Eventually it becomes clear that the use of the machine, and its associated process of justice
Justice
Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...
where the accused is always instantly found guilty
Guilty
Guilty commonly refers to the feeling of guilt, an experience that occurs when a person believes that they have violated a moral standard.Guilty or The Guilty may also refer to:-Law:*Guilty plea, a formal admission of legal culpability...
, has fallen out of favor with the current Commandant
Commandant
Commandant is a senior title often given to the officer in charge of a large training establishment or academy. This usage is common in anglophone nations...
. The Officer is nostalgic regarding the torture machine and the values that were initially associated with it. As the last proponent of the machine, he strongly believes in its form of justice and the infallibility of the previous Commandant, who designed and built the device. In fact, the Officer carries its blueprints with him and is the only person who can properly decipher them; no one else is allowed to handle these documents.
The Officer begs the Explorer to speak to the current Commandant on behalf of the machine's continued use. He refuses to do so, although he says he will not speak against it and will leave before he can be called to give an official account. The Officer realizes that this will be the machine's last use; he frees the Condemned and sets up the machine for himself, with the words "Be Just" to be written on him. However, the machine malfunctions due to its advanced state of disrepair; instead of its usual elegant operation, it quickly stabs the Officer to death, denying him the mystical experience of the prisoners he executed.
Accompanied by the Soldier and the Condemned, the Explorer makes his way to a tea house
Tea house
A tea house or tearoom is a venue centered on drinking tea. Its function varies widely depending on the culture, and some cultures have a variety of distinct tea-centered houses or parlors that all qualify under the English language term "tea house" or "tea room."-Asia:In Central Asia this term...
in which he is shown the grave of the old Commandant. Its stone is set so low that a table can easily be placed over it; the inscription states his followers' belief that he will rise from the dead someday and take control of the colony once more. As the Explorer prepares to leave by boat, the Soldier and the Condemned try to board but are repelled.
Adaptations
- In 1999 Charlie Deaux wrote and directed the short avant-garde film Zoetrope, which is loosely based upon the story.
- In 2000 composer Philip GlassPhilip GlassPhilip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
wrote a chamber operaChamber operaChamber opera is a designation for operas written to be performed with a chamber ensemble rather than a full orchestra.The term and form were invented by Benjamin Britten in the 1940s, when the English Opera Group needed works that could easily be taken on tour and performed in a variety of small...
, In the Penal Colony, based on the Kafka story. - In 2009 Young Iranian filmmaker, Narges Kalhor, showed her short film adaptation at the Nuremberg Film Festival
- ShiberHur Theatre Company of Palestine will present a new version of In the Penal Colony at London's Young Vic in July 2011, adapted by Amir Nizar Zuabi.
- In 2011 Arizona State University produced a theatrical production based on the short story. It was written by Christian Krauspe, directed by Kyle Lewis, Scenic Design by Jeannie Beirne, Costume Design by Maci Hosler, Lighting Design by Troy Buckey, Sound Design by Dustin Chaffin, and Media Design by Micah Stieglitz.
Publication history (in English)
- (1941) Translated by Eugene JolasEugene JolasJohn George Eugene Jolas was a writer, translator and literary critic.-Biography:Eugene Jolas was born in Union City, New Jersey, but grew up in Forbach in Elsass-Lothringen , to which his family returned when he was two years old. He spent periods of his adult life living in both the U.S...
, "Partisan ReviewPartisan ReviewPartisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003, though it suspended publication between October 1936 and December 1937.-Overview:...
", March-April 1941, ppp. 98-107, 146-158. - (1948) Translated by Willa and Edwin MuirEdwin MuirEdwin Muir was an Orcadian poet, novelist and translator born on a farm in Deerness on the Orkney Islands. He was remembered for his deeply felt and vivid poetry in plain language with few stylistic preoccupations....
, in The Penal ColonyThe Penal Colony: Stories and Short PiecesThe Penal Colony: Stories and Short Pieces is a collection of short stories and recollections by Franz Kafka, with additional writings by Max Brod. First published in 1948 by Schocken Books, this volume includes all the works Kafka intended for publication, and published during his lifetime...
, New York: Schocken Books, 1948. - (1995) Translated by Willa and Edwin MuirEdwin MuirEdwin Muir was an Orcadian poet, novelist and translator born on a farm in Deerness on the Orkney Islands. He was remembered for his deeply felt and vivid poetry in plain language with few stylistic preoccupations....
, in The Complete StoriesThe Complete Stories of Franz KafkaThe Complete Stories of Franz Kafka is a compilation of all Kafka's short stories. With the exception of Kafka's three novels , this collection includes all of Kafka's narrative work. The book was originally edited by Nahum N. Glatzer and published by Schocken Books in 1971...
. Ed. Nahum N. Glatzer, New York: Schocken Books, 1995, pp. 140-167. ISBN 0-8052-1055-5. - (1996) Translated by Donna Freed, in The Metamorphosis and Other Stories, New York: Barnes & Noble, 1996. ISBN 978-1-56619-969-8.
- (2007) Translated by Stanley Corngold, in Kafka's Selected Stories, Norton Critical Edition, New York: Norton, 2007, pp. 35-59. ISBN 978-0-393-92479-4.
In popular culture
Frank ZappaFrank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
, in the liner notes of the Mothers of Invention album We're Only in It for the Money
We're Only in It for the Money
We're Only in It For the Money is the third studio album by The Mothers of Invention, released in March 1968. The album peaked at number thirty on the Billboard 200...
, recommends reading the short story before listening to the track "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny."
Ian Curtis
Ian Curtis
Ian Kevin Curtis was an English singer and lyricist, famous for leading the post-punk band Joy Division. Joy Division released their debut album, Unknown Pleasures, in 1979 and recorded their follow-up, Closer, in 1980...
of the band Joy Division
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...
was inspired by "In the Penal Colony" to write the song "Colony" from the album Closer
Closer (Joy Division album)
Closer is the second and final studio album by the English post-punk band Joy Division, released , two months following the suicide of lead singer Ian Curtis. The album was originally scheduled to be released on . The record was originally released on the Factory Records label as a 12" LP and...
.
The execution device is similar to the Blood Quill utilized by Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter series. The magical quill, however, writes with the blood of the user as ink, and what is written is carved onto the user's hand; scars are left with continuous use. It is considered a brutal device of torture.
External links
- Original German text (In der Strafkolonie)
- An English translation of the story
- In the Penal Colony study guide, themes, quotes, multimedia, teacher resources
- http://abcnews.go.com/m/screen?id=8833070&pid=4380645 Filmmaker Narges Kalhor