Waiting Before the Law: Kafka on the Border
| Published date | 01 September 2010 |
| Date | 01 September 2010 |
| Author | Henk van Houtum |
| DOI | 10.1177/0964663910372180 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Waiting Before the Law:
Kafka on the Border
Henk van Houtum
Nijmegen Centre for Border Research
Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Abstract
In Kafka’s parable ‘Before the Law’ the man from the country waits his entire life
before the border, represented as the Law. In this article, the act of waiting before
the Law is analysed in the context of a geopolitical border. More particularly, the
question of why we b/order ourselves is investigated. And when do we dare to enter/
open the gate? I discuss how this act of b/ordering can be understood as balancing
the desire to flee, migrate, move, escape – in short, to be freed (psychoid desire)
and the desire to be, to be-long, to home oneself, to be bordered (paranoid desire). The
border then is a dynamic result of our desires and of the reverse, our fears. More than a
line in space, therefore, b/ordering is a strategic socio-political practice that will vary
over time and space. A border is not an answer, it is a constant interrogation, for our-
selves as well as others.
Keywords
before the Law, Bordering, Kafka, Ordering, Othering, paranoid desire, schizoid desire
Introducing, Waiting and B/ordering
Please allow me to start by citing that famous parable of Franz Kafka, ‘Before the Law’.
Before the Law stands a gate keeper. To this gate keeper there comes a man from the
country who asks for admittance to the Law. But the gate keeper says that he cannot grant
admittance at the moment. The man thinks it over and asks if he will be allowed in later. ‘It
is possible,’ says the gate keeper, ‘but not at the moment.’ Since the gate stands open as
usual, and the gate keeper steps to one side, the man can stoop to peer through the gateway
into the interior. Seeing this, the gate keeper laughs and says: ‘If you like, just try to go in
despite my veto. But be warned: I am powerful. And I am the meekest of the gate keepers.
From hall to hall there is one gate keeper after another, each more powerful than the last.
Social & Legal Studies
19(3) 285–297
ªThe Author(s) 2010
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DOI: 10.1177/0964663910372180
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