The kafkaesque as a rupture, the kafkaesque as a possibility: laughter and morality in the contemporary novel

Abstract

In 1902, Hugo von Hofmannsthal wrote Chandos Letter, a text that tries to show a problem that ended up being called the crisis of fin-de-siècle. This is exemplified in the renunciation of the classicist tradition that had been dominating much of the knowledge until then. In this context, the only solution was to find new languages capable to explore the limits of each of the affected disciplines. In the case of literature, one of the authors who overcame these limits was Franz Kafka, whose narrative is dominated by an irony with which he managed to say what seemed unspeakable. This article will explain the use of this irony as an essential element in the configuration of the contemporary novel, while at the same time it will serve as a basis to argue in favor of an aesthetic autonomism when explaining the moral reactions to fiction.