Waiting Before the Law: Kafka on the Border

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 ourselves as well as others.