Kafka through Job, Job through Kafka

Abstract

Following Borges’ idea that each author creates his own
predecessor, this article intends to read part of the work of Kafka
through the Book of Job and imagine a kind of dialogue between
both in order to demonstrate that using the biblical text as a background,
Job permits us to refine and relate, within its own
literary context, some of the central images in Kafka. But,
different from other readings that have as a purpose to find a
certain religiosity in Kafka similar to that which is present in
the biblical text of Job, this text strives for the contrary: it is
Kafka that permits us to see the incipient irreligiosity in the Book
of Job.