“The Giant Mole”, or the Logic of a Deadlock in Communication

Abstract

The paper explores the problem of a model of governing the communication process in modern societies. The analysis is based on the material of the two cases of polemics which, as far as the opinions involved are concerned, are absolutely identical. The first controversy broke out in the Internet following the release of a film in “popular science”; the latter case is described in Franz Kafka’s story “The Giant Mole”. Kafka’s narrative proves very suitable for exposing the matrix governing the distribution of communicative positions. The author examines and submits to critique the interpretations of the story proposed by such scholars as Max Brod, Wilhelm Emrich and Werner Kraft.