The Waterloo Centre for German Studies and the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo are proud to present In the Penal Colony, a performance and symposium event.
Based on Franz Kafka’s 1915 short story, this site-responsive performance reveals contemporary resonances in unexpected and engaging ways as it animates Kafka’s story through the unique architectural qualities of the of the staging location. Following the performance, In the Penal Colony will be discussed by University of Waterloo scholars, reflecting on Kafka’s representation of early 20th century colonial incarceration and its continued impact in the present day.
Commemorating the 100th anniversary of Franz Kafka's death in 1924, the event addresses the aspects of his writing that identify the Euro-colonial apparatus that structured society in Kafka’s time and its legacies in education, law, policing, politics, and architecture today.
Kafka asks us to view the world differently, from our position of privilege and benefit. In the Penal Colony asks, can we recognize the machinery that operates within our lives? Can we identify the parts of this apparatus that shape our lives and understanding of the world?
“If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for?... We need books to affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.” -From a letter written by Franz Kafka, January 27, 1904