| "In the Penal Colony" | |
|---|---|
| Author | Franz Kafka |
| Original title | "In der Strafkolonie" |
| Translator | Eugene Jolas (1941) |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | German |
| Genre(s) | Short story |
| Publisher | Kurt Wolff Verlag |
| Media type | book (hardcover) |
| Publication date | October 1919 |
| Published in English | 1941 |
"In the Penal Colony" (German: "In der Strafkolonie") (also translated as In the Penal Settlement) is a short story by Franz Kafka written in German in October 1914, revised in November 1918, and first published in October 1919.
The story is set in an unnamed penal colony. Internal clues and the setting on an island suggest Octave Mirbeau's The Torture Garden as an influence.[1] As in some of Kafka's other writings, the narrator in this story seems detached from, or perhaps numbed by, events that one would normally expect to be registered with horror. In the Penal Colony describes the last use of an elaborate torture and execution device that carves the sentence of the condemned prisoner on his skin in a script before letting him die, all in the course of twelve hours. As the plot unfolds, the reader learns more and more about the machine, including its origin, and original justification.[2]
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There are only four characters, each named according to their role in the story. The Officer is the machine's operator, the Condemned is a man scheduled for execution, the Soldier is responsible for guarding the Condemned, and the Explorer is a European dignitary and visitor. In the original German, the Explorer is referred to as "der Forschungsreisender,"—which is closer in translation to traveler/researcher/voyager—or simply as "der Reisende".
The story focuses on the Explorer, who is encountering the brutal machine for the first time. Everything about the machine and its purpose is told to him by the Officer, while the Soldier and the Condemned (who is unaware that he has been sentenced to die) placidly watch nearby. The Officer tells of the religious epiphany the executed experience in their last six hours in the machine.
Eventually it becomes clear that the use of the machine, and its associated process of justice where the accused is always instantly found guilty, has fallen out of favor with the current Commandant. The Officer is nostalgic regarding the torture machine and the values that were initially associated with it. As the last proponent of the machine, he strongly believes in its form of justice and the infallibility of the previous Commandant, who designed and built the device. In fact, the Officer carries its blueprints with him and is the only person who can properly decipher them; no one else is allowed to handle these documents.
The Officer begs the Explorer to speak to the current Commandant on behalf of the machine's continued use. He refuses to do so, although he says he will not speak against it and will leave before he can be called to give an official account. The Officer realizes that this will be the machine's last use; he frees the Condemned and sets up the machine for himself, with the words "Be Just" to be written on him. However, the machine malfunctions due to its advanced state of disrepair; instead of its usual elegant operation, it quickly stabs the Officer to death, denying him the mystical experience of the prisoners he executed.[3]
Accompanied by the Soldier and the Condemned, the Explorer makes his way to a tea house in which he is shown the grave of the old Commandant. Its stone is set so low that a table can easily be placed over it; the inscription states his followers' belief that he will rise from the dead someday and take control of the colony once more. As the Explorer prepares to leave by boat, the Soldier and the Condemned try to board but are repelled.
Frank Zappa, in the liner notes of the Mothers of Invention album We're Only in It for the Money, recommends reading the short story before listening to the track "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny."
Ian Curtis of the band Joy Division was inspired by "In the Penal Colony" to write the song "Colony" from the album Closer.
The execution device is similar to the Blood Quill utilized by Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter series. The magical quill, however, writes with the blood of the user as ink, and what is written is carved onto the user's hand; scars are left with continuous use. It is considered a brutal device of torture.