Much of Kafka's other work touches on similar themes or bears a formal resemblance to "In the Penal Colony":
• For more of his stories on conceptions of justice, consider "Before the Law," "The Judgment," "The Problem of Our Laws," or the longer The Trial.
• For more of his stories that focus on a foreign, esoteric, difficult-to-grasp object, consider "The Metamorphosis" or "A Hunger Artist."
• For more of his stories that are self-consciously interested in the nature of language, consider "An Imperial Message" or "Investigations of a Dog."
It may also be useful to situate Kafka's work in context by distinguishing it from similar yet distinct types of "modernist" or "post-modernist"...
