Kafka's Antizionism through a Comparative Analysis of 'Jackals and Arabs' with Judeo-Christian Texts, the Alexander Romance, and the Qur'an

Bibliographic Data

ID3555944
AuthorsIsmail Lala (0000-0002-1089-7478, Gulf University for Science & Technology, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume15
Issue3
Pages282
Publication date2024-02-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel15030282
OpenAlexW4392155765
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited18

Kafka explores many elements in 'Jackals and Arabs' that are found in the Judeo-Christian tradition of Gog and Magog, the Alexander Romance, and the Qur'anic story of Dhu'l-Qarnayn. A comparative analysis of these works reveals Kafka's criticism of the Zionist movement. Kafka rejects Zionist exceptionalism and separatism through the narrator's rejection of the jackals' cause. Kafka's jackals are compared to Gog and Magog, who are portrayed as corruptors of the land in the aforementioned texts. The categorisation of corruptors of the land is significant because this reverses Zionist claims of a profound connection to the land, which Kafka, likewise, reverses when the jackals claim that the desert is their home from which the Arabs should be removed. Zionist avowals of Arab backwardness are countered by Kafka as he makes the Arabs superior, which is also how the indigenous population are depicted in the Judeo-Christian and Muslim traditions since they are contrasted with the barbarity of Gog and Magog. Finally, the Zionist trope of the European Jewish hero who flees persecution is inverted by Kafka who confers on the narrator a quasi-prophetic/royal status similar to that of Dhu'l-Qarnayn and Alexander the Great

Art · Literature · Romance · Franz Kafka Literary Studies · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Modernist Literature and Criticism · Philosophy · Religious studies

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access