Pseudo-detective stories: A comparison between Franz Kafka's The Trial and Ryunosuke Akutagawa's "In a Grove"

Based on traditional detective stories, Kafka and Akutagawa tempted to create a form of pseudo-detective stories, making them flourish during the 20th century and the early decades of the 21st century. Kafka composes The Trial under the absurd sentence of Josef K., to turn Josef K.'s solving the case into self-conviction and conclude that dictatorship and bureaucracy do harms to human life. The Trial also gives a thought that people are always sinful and cannot escape the domination of a supreme power. Similarly, Akutawaga also uses the structure of the pseudo-detective story to parodize reason - the basis of modern knowledge - by composing a sentence with a murder in which any character involved, including the victim, who also identifies oneself as a murderer. If Kafka asserts that everyone can be at fault, then Akutagawa thinks everyone can be a killer. The philosophical warnings of these two genius writers help awaken readers, with the serious, humorous and intellectual narrative style of the pseudo-detective story that is highly appealing. Kafka and Akutagawa have inspired generations of writers and readers who enjoy their literature of sin investigation. Pseudo-detective stories have thus become one of the phenomena of distinctive narrative. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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