My paper deals with the connection between spatial order and social order in the works of Stifter, Nietzsche, and Kafka. While Stifter, especially in his novel Nachsommer, is concerned to narrate space as a potential model for social harmony and its limits, Nietzsche, borrowing a lot from Stifter, is focusing on the potential of the high mountains as a breeding place for a revolution of values (cf. Thus Spake Zarathustra). In his early writings, Kafka connects closely to both authors and recombines their views. My paper will reconstruct Kafka’s return to the former authors and demonstrate how it is informed by the sociological discussions of his day (Quetelet, Tarde, Brentano, Simmel), and how we could use contemporary cutting edge theory (notably the actor-network approach designed by Bruno Latour and others) to unveil the underlying patterns of narration in Kafka’s Betrachtung.
