The Resistance of the Invisible Mute: Gender Oppression in Franz Kafka’s “A Little Woman”

Abstract

In the works of Franz Kafka (1883-1924), it is certain that the notion of women is never as impressive as the monstrosity of his gigantic bug or the mystery of his artist who fasts endlessly. Most notable works written by Kafka seemingly center on male protagonists with a certain degree of uncanniness. As a scholar specialized in women’s studies, Evelyn Torton Beck highlights the minimal presence of women in Kafka’s works. This essay aims to analyze the invisibility and silence of the female protagonist in “A Little Woman” (1923) concerning the status of women in Kafka’s modernist world. In this story, the existence of the invisible and voiceless woman conflicts with the audible male narrator. The tension between them demonstrates gendered bias. The depiction of the little woman is made solely under a biased male perspective, which demonstrates how women are oppressed by the opposite sex in the patriarchal context.