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This paper aims to show that Franz Kafka, in his 1926 unfinished novel The Castle, has portrayed empty signifiers. The paper first explores the understanding of the empty signifier, tracing how it evolved from the idea of the instability of a sign in Saussure’s linguistic theories, and what it implies. Going forward, the paper uses this exploration to identify and analyse Kafka’s use of empty signifiers in the novel. Doing so, it identifies four (out of many other) empty signifiers. It analyses two characters with fluctuating significations – Frieda and Barnabas – and two objects which break the stability of their supposed meaning – telephones and letters. The paper concludes by noting that the portrayal of empty signifiers does not translate into obfuscation of subtexts. Ultimately, this paper is an attempt to bring the discourse on Kafka away from ultracrepidarian pronouncements of existentialism, and to centre it back on actual, critical and complex engagements with his works.
Swagato Chakraborty. “Empty Signifiers in Franz Kafka’s The Castle.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 2, Apr. 2026, pp. 297–313. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.18.
Open Access · CC BY 4.0 · Crossref DOI ·
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