The issue of international terrorism at the beginning of the 21st century, in the United States in particular, has left populations asking: “who and where is the enemy and how do we bring them to justice?” But a more important question could be “Who is the victim and who is not, and what measures are appropriate while minimising collateral damage?” Peeling away the complex layers in the politics of anti‐terror policy leads to the inevitable conclusion that long gone are the alleged days of “black and white” cases of nation‐wide warfare. Franz Kafka all too often warns of the psychosocial pressure that follows as a result of the hegemonic power dynamic, and though imperialism was no new concept in Kafka’s era, his concerns shine ever brighter in light of the rise of the neo‐colonial anti‐terror initiative. Politics aside, this situation is a powerful echo, prophecy even, of a host of Kafka’s literary works, which warn of a ‘psycho‐dystopian’ world of torture machines on colony‐island penitentiaries, of summary executions and the breaching of basic human rights to achieve a government’s desired end. In this presentation, I will demonstrate how Der Prozeβ (The Trial) – with its parallels to the ethereal nature of law‐ is still relevant to the case of the U.S.‐led “War on Terror” in a world of liberally accessible media and information, spreading discontent and paranoia in the hearts and minds of the very population that the anti‐terror policy is designed to “protect”.
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