The need for community: Learning from Zola and Kafka

La modernidad ha experimentado la transición de una sociedad dominada por la Gemeinschaft (comunidad) a otra en que lidera el concepto de Gesellschaft (associación). En la Gesellschaft, el comportamiento racional, interesado y calculador ha debilidado las tradicionales relaciones familiares y religiosas típicas de la Gemeinschaft. La Gesellschaft es pues el lugar en que el pueblo desaparece y las relaciones humanas divienen impersonales y rationally constructed en razón de la eficiencia o de otros intereses economicos y políticos. Los individuos son absorbidos por las tensiones entre las fuerzas de la Gemeinschaft, por una parte, y de la Gesellschaft, por otra.
Así las cosas, merece la pena examinar la experiencia jurídica a través de la literatura, la cual nos ofrece la oportunidad de examinar la sociedad y entender los intereses, conflictivos entre sí, que la animan. Según Calvino, la literatura puede complementar el Derecho en la comprensión del comportamiento humano.
Conectar el universo del Derecho y él de la literatura nos ayuda a desafiar la impostación dogmática en los estudios jurídicos y, al mismo tiempo, a restituir al Derecho su propia dimensión ética. Se desvela, además, otro aspecto del Derecho que está conectado a la realidad humana: el Derecho, es decir, a veces no se opone a la violencia, mas la rodea ambiguamente. La intersección entre Derecho y literatura nos revela que las situaciones individuales siempre se sitúan dentro un caleidoscopio social, cultural, histórico y económico.

Modern times have experienced a transition from a society dominated by the concept of Gemeinschaft (community) to one dominated by the concept of Gesellschaft (association). In Gesellschaft, rational self-interest and calculating behaviour act to weaken the traditional bonds of family, kinship, and religion that permeate the Gemeinschaft structure. Gesellschaft is the place where people disappear, and human relationships are impersonal and indirect, rationally constructed in the interest of efficiency, or other economic and political considerations. Individuals, unsurprisingly, are caught up in the tensions between the forces of Gemeinschaft, on the one hand, and Gesellschaft, on the other. Bearing in mind these considerations, a review of some notable literature on the subject of the Law would be useful.

Literature offers indeed the opportunity to investigate society and understand the conflicting interests at stake, as well as the technique employed to solve these conflicts. In some respect, according to Calvino, literature can help the Law understand human behaviour, even if the solution offered is nothing more than a prelude to a new problem.
Linking the universe of law and literature, i.e. connecting the two elements, can therefore be productive for lawyers. The aim is to erode the dogmatic approach of the legal doctrine, desecrate it and restore the law to its own dimension and scope of ethics. Law adds a second deconstruction to the first, one which is even more radical, not concerning its limits, but its very essence. Not only does the legal system fail to hide in its framework a human reality that escapes a predetermined order; very often, surprisingly, Law does not stand opposed to criminal violence, but ambiguously borders with it. The intersection between Law and literature tells us that individual situations always fall into that social, cultural, historical, economic kaleidoscope, which affects our actions no less than our will.