This presentation focuses on the contribution of literature to a new perception of power structures in Western society in the context of theories by Foucault, Agamben and Luhmann. In Kafka’s novel The Trial (1914-15), Josef K., a bank clerk in middle-manage-ment, is a small fish in the hierarchy of a society on the verge of collapse during World War I. K. strives to contact the highest authority in order to justify himself and his life style, for which he feels persecuted by...

