Fragments and Wounded Bodies: Kafka After Kleist‪.‬

Wound, Fragment, Symptom The question of the wound as a sign and a symbol is still open. In literary discourses this question is often translated into problems of narration or representation. The wound of Philoctetes, as it is known from Sophocles, can be seen as an example of this tendency. In the field of German literature and drama, from Gotthold Ephraim Lessing to Heiner Muller, the wounded body of Philoctetes demonstrates the possibilities of representation of horror and suffering (Lessing 26-40). On the same path stands Oedipus Rex: his tragic body, his wounds, his bleeding eyes provoked paradigmatic readings and allegories of the literary form from Holderlin to Freud (Holderlin 729-36). Even the Greek wound that found a cure becomes a principal theme of literary criticism. Erich Auerbach's thesis on Odysseus's scar is evidence of this concern (Auerbach 5-27). And yet, possibly more than any other figure, it is the wounded body of Christ that continues to disturb and challenge European authors and artists. The wounds of the Crucifixion, the holes of the nails and the cut on Christ's side made by the Roman's spear, are sacred signatures. The sacred body became a major source for works of art and constituted the origin of the aesthetic aura. Richard Wagner's version of Parsifal is an example of this phenomenon in the field of modern German literature.