Franz Kafka 1883 1924 A Brief Biography and
Franz Kafka (1883 -1924) A Brief Biography and Introduction to his Novella, The Metamorphosis (w. 1912; p. 1915)
NOVELLA A novella is, as its name suggests, a short novel or a very long story. “a work of fiction intermediate in length and complexity between a short story and a novel. ”
Part 1: A Brief Biography
Franz Kafka • Franz Kafka was born in Prague (Bohemia) in 1883. At the time Prague was the second major capital of the Austro. Hungarian Empire. Most of the working class people in Prague spoke Czech; the upper class spoke German. The origins of Kafka’s alienation are rooted in the social and cultural conflicts in which Prague was steeped: Czechs vs. Germans; Jews vs. non. Jews.
Another (implicit) conflict existed in the union of his parents, since his father was middle class, while his mother came from an upper-class, German-speaking family.
German-speaking family. • Hermann Kafka (father) worked initially as a traveling salesman; he then became a wealthy retailer of men’s and women’s clothing and accessories. • Julie Lowy (mother) was the daughter of an affluent brewer.
Kafka was the first born son. He had two younger brothers who died in infancy. Of Kafka’s three younger sisters, he favored the youngest, Ottla.
Kafka’s father was reputed to be an overbearing, materialistic, tyrannical man who valued making money above all else. He was critical of Franz’s literary efforts and viewed his son as lacking substance and ambition. Because Mrs. Kafka helped her husband run his lucrative business, the Kafka children were left in the care of a series of governesses and servants.
According to Dr. Grzegorz Gazda, a Kafka scholar from the University Of Lodz, Poland, the Kafka children did have one long-term positive surrogate parent—a Czechspeaking governess--Marie Wernerova, who remained in the Kafka household until her death in 1918. It was Wernerova’s presence that gave the children’s everyday lives more of a “family atmosphere. ”
For most of his adult life, Franz Kafka was employed at the “Worker's Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. The job involved investigating personal injury to industrial workers, such as lost fingers or limbs, and assessing compensation. Industrial accidents of this kind were commonplace at this time. ”
Kafka in Love
Kafka’s Romances: Engaged to Felice Bauer in 1914 but called off a few weeks later. Engaged again in July 1917 but due to Kafka’s failing health, the second engagement was broken in Dec. 1917.
In 1918, while convalescing in a Schelensen boarding house for tuberculosis patients, Kafka met a shy dressmaker from Prague, Julie Wohryzek. By the summer of 1919, Kafka proposed to Julie, much to his father’s objections, who suggested that his son would do better to visit a brothel than to marry a woman from such a low social standing. Kafka and Wohryzek amicably agreed to call off the engagement and remained friends.
• 1920, Kafka had a serious relationship with the married Czech journalist and writer Milena Jesenská. However, their relationship did not last. His final relationship was with 25 -year-old Dora Diamant, a kindergarten teacher who volunteered at one of the last sanatoriums Kafka visited.
Milena. Jesenska&Franz. Kafka
Kafka and Dora Diamant
The Theme of Transformation or Metamorphosis Kafka borrows from a rich literary tradition of “transformation” or metamorphosis stories.
“Wedding Preparations in the Country” Among Kafka’s unfinished manuscripts (Max Brod was Kafka’s literary executor) was a long story called “Wedding Preparations in the Country, ” a fragmented work about Eduard Raban, a man who is reluctantly traveling to the country to prepare for his own wedding to his fiance, Betty. Composed around 1907 -08, but never published during Kafka’s lifetime, it contains common themes in Kafka’s work… “nonarrival” and “stasis. ”
“WPITC” reads like an exercise in stasis: Eduard’s watch stops, he is preoccupied with the ineffectual forward movement of the horses’ “thin forelegs, ” and notes the “light short steps of the people coming toward him. ” The “carriage wheels squeaked with the brakes on, ” and “the wind was blowing straight against him. ” Eduard Raban so dreads the wedding plans that he imagines sending a BODY DOUBLE:
“I don’t even need to go to the country myself…I’ll send my clothed body…For I myself am meanwhile lying in my bed, smoothly covered over with the yellow brown blanket, exposed to the breeze that is wafted through the seldom-aired room…. As I lie in bed I assume the shape of a big beetle, a stag beetle or a cockchafer, I think…. The form of a large beetle, yes. Then I would pretend it was a matter of hibernating…and I would press my little legs to my bulging belly…”
I will stay in bed and pretend I am a stag beetle, hibernating. I will be your body-double and attend the wedding.
Roman poet Ovid 43 B. C. -A. Franz Kafka: 1883 -1924 D. 17 Ovid wrote Metamorphoses in epic poetry form. It tells of several mortals or nymphs who were transformed into animal or plant (or other) form by the gods, usually as a punishment for a wrongdoing. Some mortals asked to be transformed to avoid a certain fate. Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” tells of Gregor Samsa’s transformation and how his altered state impacts the rest of his family.
Grimm Brothers Fairy Tales • Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published their famous collection of fairy tales in 1814. One of the Grimm brothers’ purposes in gathering and publishing these folk tales was to help Germans regain a sense of national pride. The tales are designed to represent a patriarchal hierarchy and traditional family and gender roles.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Transformation (which means “change”) in these fairy tales is often the result of an evil being’s curse or is a “wish gone awry. ” Frequently in the Grimm Brothers’ tales, a transformation occurs, and through the good deeds of the character or through the intervention of a loyal and kind-hearted person, the spell is broken and the transformed person is turned back into his or her original human form.
Transformation/Intervention/Reversal of Transformation • In “The Seven Ravens, ” for example, a father, upset that his seven sons are not prompt in delivering spring water for the baptism of their new baby sister, wishes that they all get turned into ravens. The father’s wish comes true, and the brothers all fly off to live in the woods together. Later, the sister wants to know about her brothers, and when she learns what has happened to them, she sets out to find them. When the sister does find the seven ravens, due to her goodness, they are transformed back into their human form and reunited with the family.
Note the use of the KEY in both TSR and in TM. The sister in both stories eventually is the key or controls the key to the brothers’ (or brother’s) release from the transformation.
“He must go…That’s the only solution. You must try to get rid of the idea that this is Gregor. ”
Part Three: PSYCHOBIOGRAPHICAL ELEMENTS
Although a psycho-biographical reading of Kafka’s work can be reductive, there are several parallels between Kafka’s life and the tone and themes in The Metamorphosis:
1. The strained and distant father/son relationship. “His father knotted his fist with a fierce expression on his face as if he meant to knock Gregor back into the room” (35). “[The father] seized in his right hand the walking stick which the chief clerk had left behind…in his left hand a large newspaper…and [he] began stamping his feet…to drive Gregor back into his room” (35). The father “hisses” at Gregor and pushes him so hard that Gregor is injured (41).
On page 64 the father throws apples at Gregor is never given any indications that his parents or sister appreciate his sacrifices. Once after Gregor arrived home from a long business trip, his father “could not really rise to his feet but only lifted his arms in greeting” (62).
#2: Gregor’s feelings of guilt and obligation to earn more money correspond with Franz Kafka’s awareness that his father was disappointed in his career choice and earning potential. Kafka, like Gregor, had difficulty establishing his own independence.
#3 (Military image) Gregor had been a lieutenant in the military, as indicated by the picture described on p. 35. Although the parents are portrayed as nearinvalids at the novella’s beginning, once Gregor is incapacitated by his metamorphosis, his father gradually becomes more robust. The father’s blue uniform with its shiny golden buttons seems to give him an air of authority and power. Ironically, no one in the family ever mentions that Gregor had served in the military.
Despite Kafka’s desire to join the military, his employer arranged to have his service deferred on the grounds that the country needed him to continue in his position at the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. Later, his health issues disqualified him from serving in the military.
The father makes no effort to comfort his son after his transformation. While Gregor was a conscientious care-taker of his family, when the roles are reversed, his parents and (eventually, his sister) view Gregor as an embarrassing inconvenience. Mr. Samsa’s lack of involvement in Gregor’s care parallels Kafka’s lifelong feelings of inadequacy and assumptions that he had disappointed his own father.
Although we as readers never learn how or why Gregor Samsa transformed into a large insect, we can surmise from the family dynamics that Gregor is alienated, tired of working to pay off his parents’ debts, and he unconsciously desires to be fired from his job.
Obsessed with his obligation to support his family and apparently guilt-ridden over his desire to abandon such duties, he has, symbolically, been transformed into something repulsive. Instead of simply telling his family that he is going to quit his job, and move away to establish his own life, it is easier for Gregor to accept his metamorphosis into something he has apparently always suspected: that he is worthless and despicable.
Furthermore, to add to his selfpunishment, the loneliness Gregor has felt as a traveling salesman is heightened when he is confined to his own room and eventually stripped of everything that allows him “a recollection of his human background. ”
#4: Both Gregor Samsa and Franz Kafka are critical of bureaucratic hierarchies and hypocrisy. Early in the novella, Gregor fears that though he has not been absent from work one day during his five years of employment, he will be severely punished for his absence. When the chief clerk arrives, he reprimands Gregor, telling him that his job performance has not been satisfactory lately, and the firm suspects he may have taken money!
Neither the chief clerk nor anyone else can understand a word Gregor utters, but Gregor defends himself, saying “All that you’re reproaching me with now has no foundation; no one has ever said a word to me about it” (31). Before the chief clerk arrives, Gregor thinks, “What a fate, to be condemned to work for a firm where the smallest omission at once gave rise to the gravest suspicion!” (27).
5 th psychobiographical similarity: Gregor is closest to his sister Grete, and Kafka favored and was cared for by his youngest sister Ottla. 6 th psychobiographical similarity: As Gregor’s eyesight and hearing fail, he also notices when his father is again chasing him from the living room, " he was already beginning to feel breathless, just as in his former life his lungs had not been very dependable” (emphasis added 62). Kafka had tuberculosis.
As Gregor becomes more insect and less human, he tells himself that he must be patient with his family, who now lock him in his room. He regards his existence as an “imprisonment” (48). Grete and the mother take furniture from Gregor’s room so he can “crawl” over the floor and walls. However, Gregor panics when he sees that the reminders of his human existence— the desk at which he did his homework as a boy, etc. , are being taken from him.
When Grete and his mother are cleaning out Gregor’s room, he “rescues” the “picture of the lady muffled in so much fur and quickly crawled up to it and pressed himself to the glass”…[it] was “to be removed by nobody. ” psychobiographical similarity: Gregor Samsa (like Kafka) has little success with his relationships with women. (Recall slides 13 -16). 7 th
Like Kafka, who had little success with women, Gregor Samsa recalls only one woman— “a cashier in a milliner’s shop, whom he had wooed earnestly, but too slowly—” yet she along with others he remembered, “instead of helping him and his family they were one and all unapproachable and he was glad when they vanished. ”
Part 3: The family’s metamorphosis.
In part 3 of the novella, the mother, father and sister are resuscitated. While Gregor weakens and becomes further isolated, the other members of his family spring into action. The mother takes on sewing jobs, the sister works as a salesgirl (and takes classes in shorthand French), and the father, dressed in his gold-buttoned uniform, becomes a messenger for a bank.
Not all of the money from the father’s former business was lost, as it turns out. Moreover, in the face of Gregor’s unemployed status, the Samsas become rather resourceful. They sell “ornaments” (i. e. , jewelry or other objects that would hold value), take in three lodgers and cut back domestic help to one “charwoman. ” Meanwhile, Gregor remains “unnoticed by the family. ” No one bothers to bring him food any longer.
An inversion takes place: it seems that as a result of Gregor’s illness (and ultimately his death) the family members who were once dependent and seemingly helpless become more vital in proportion to Gregor’s deterioration:
“Now he (the father) was standing there in fine shape; dressed in a smart blue uniform with gold buttons, such as bank messengers wear; his strong double chin bulged over the stiff high collar of his jacket; from under his bushy eyebrows his black eyes darted fresh and penetrating glances; his onetime tangled white hair had been combed flat on either side of a shining and carefully exact parting…he lifted his feet uncommonly high, and Gregor was dumbfounded at the enormous size of his shoe soles” (63).
“…dressed in a smart blue uniform with gold buttons…”
While Grete is at first sympathetic to Gregor, after a while, she is weary of his presence. It is Grete who says to the family, " we must try to get rid of it” (79).
“Leave my house at once!”
“He thought of his family with tenderness and love. The decision that he must disappear was one that he held to even more strongly than his sister, if that were possible. In this state of vacant and peaceful meditation he remained until the tower clock struck three in the morning. The first broadening of light in the world outside of his window entered his consciousness once more. Then his head sank to the floor of its own accord and from his nostrils came his last faint flicker of his breath” (83).
Point of View and Tone Remarkably, though Gregor Samsa awakens to discover he has transformed into a giant insect, he remains fairly calm and describes his condition in a matter-of-fact manner. Except for the last 9 paragraphs of the novella, the work is narrated from the limited omniscient 3 rd person point of view, filtered through Gregor Samsa’s perspective.
That Gregor Samsa remains so calm gives the narrative an absurdist tone. The fact that there is a disconnect between what has happened to Gregor and his response to the transformation also underscores his alienation, even from his own sense of horror or fear. The third person limited omniscient perspective allows the reader to see the action of the story through Gregor Samsa’s eyes. We are privy to his thoughts but not to other characters’ thoughts.
“Absurdist tradition refers to twentieth-century works that depict the absurdity of the modern human condition, often with implicit reference to humanity's loss or lack of religious, philosophical, or cultural roots. The term may be applied to [sic] works of literature that stress an existential outlook,
[sic] depicting the lonely, confused, and often anguished individual in an utterly bewildering universe. Conventions such as plot and dialogue are routinely flouted--as in the idea that a work of literature should be unified and coherent (in a linear progression)” (http: //theliterarylink. com/definitions. html).
Note: Kafka’s prose is precise and traditional in its organization. He does not use streamof-consciousness or disregard standards in punctuation and syntax. He does, however, juxtapose bizarre or dream-like elements with the most mundane details of everyday existence. The “bewildering universe” in Kafka’s novella does not depend as much on Gregor Samsa’s transformation into a giant insect as it hinges on his and his family’s lack of effort to understand why or how the transformation has occurred.
What could be more absurd than Mr. Samsa’s predictable and mundane reading of the newspaper in the living room while his son, once the family breadwinner, now crawls about on the walls and ceiling of his bedroom?
And what could be more alienating to Gregor than overhearing his beloved Grete accuse him of “persecuting” their family by driving away the lodgers and desiring to take over the whole apartment so she and the parents will wind up sleeping “in the gutter. ”
To rationalize her change of heart, Grete convinces herself and her parents that if that [thing] were really Gregor, he would have realized “that human beings can’t live with such a creature, and he’d have gone away on his own accord” (81).
The charwoman, who has previously referred to Gregor as an old “dung beetle, ” poked at his corpse with her long-handled broom. “it’s dead; it’s lying there dead and done for!” When the charwoman announces Gregor’s death to his family, his father says, “now thanks be to God. ”
Entomological and Egyptological References
METAMORPHOSIS MEANS “CHANGE” Insects undergo either an incomplete metamorphosis, which has 3 stages, or a complete metamorphosis, which has 4 stages (egg, larvae, pupa, adult). The COCKROACH’S METAMORPHOSIS IS: Incomplete, WITH 3 stages. Egg - A female insect lays eggs. These eggs are often covered by an egg case which protects the eggs and holds them together. Nymph - The eggs hatch into nymphs. Nymphs looks like small adults, but usually don't have wings. Insect nymphs eat the same food that the adult insect eats. Nymphs shed or molt their exoskeletons (outer casings made up of a hard substance called chitin) and replace them with larger ones several times as they grow. Most nymphs molt 4 -8 times. Adult - The insects stop molting when they reach their adult size. By this time, they have also grown wings.
What is a Dung Beetle? • Common Name: Dung beetle Scientific Name: Phanaeus vindex Mac. Lachlan; Onthophagus gazella Fabricius Order: Coleoptera Males and female beetles are between ½ and 1 inch long and overall metallic blue-green and copper. The front of the head is flattened and golden bronze. The male has a long, curved horn extending from the front of the head (clypeus) while the slightly larger female has a tubercle. The front legs are modified for digging. There a number of dung beetles or "tumblebugs" in the subfamily Scarabaeinae (Canthon, Copris, Deltochilum and Dichotomus and other genera) that are important in recycling animal feces. Some are small, dark dung-feeding scarab species (e. g. , Ataenius and Aphodius species).
Ancient Egyptians thought the scarab or dung beetle regenerated itself; therefore, they assumed all dung beetles were male. The female was not needed for reproduction.
“In Egypt, the primary symbolism associated with scarab was solar. The first scarab worshiped was probably the bright metallic Kheper aegyptiorum. The decisive symbolism came from the association of the dung ball to the sun: the scarab rolling his dung ball provided an explanation of the sun’s movement in the sky. ”
“The capital of the solar religion was the city of On, which Greeks called Heliopolis (“the City of the Sun”). It was probably at On that Khepri, a scarab god of the sun, appeared in the predynastic epoch. Khepri might have been associated with the brilliant Kheper aegyptiorum, (whose name was coined by André Janssens, in 1940) or to the black Scarabaeus sacer, which was more often figured later. ”
The name Khepri (or Kheperi, or Khepera) means “The Being, The Extant. ” The name Khepri is related to other words of the same root, e. g. kheper “to exist, to come to existence” and khepru “transformations, metamorphoses. ” Originally, Khepri represented the sun from sunrise to sunset, although the oldest texts describe him setting in the western horizon at dusk.
Some indications suggest that Egyptian scholars, i. e. priests, got the idea to examine what happened to the beetle’s dung ball when it was buried beneath the ground. They probably made the entomological observation of metamorphoses; predating those of the French entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre by about 5000 years.
Life Cycle of a Dung Beetle Adult Pupa Larva Egg deposited in dung ball
“Like all beetles, scarab beetles have a complete metamorphosis. The life cycle includes the egg (laid by the female scarab beetle), larvae which feed and grow and are C-shaped, pupae which are similar to the cocoon stage in moths, and adults which mate and begin the cycle again. ”
“just this, you don’t need to bother about how to get rid of the thing next door. It’s been seen to already. ”
Taking his cue from Grete, Gregor slowly returns to his room and collapses. “The decision that he must disappear was one that he held to even more strongly than his sister, if that were possible. In this state of vacant and peaceful meditation he remained until the tower clock struck three in the morning. The first broadening of light in the world outside the window entered his consciousness once more…. and from his nostrils came the last faint flicker of his breath” (83).
After Gregor dies, a third-person objective point of view is used for the last 9 paragraphs of the story, heightening the loss of the subjective (Gregor’s thoughts, his fears and alienation) and focusing instead on “what happens” once Gregor is no longer an imposition to his family. The objectivity of this perspective underscores the lack of compassion everyone has demonstrated.
The charwoman announces, “just this, you don’t need to bother about how to get rid of the thing next door. It’s been seen to already. ”
After Gregor’s death and the ambiguous disposal of his corpse, his mother, father and sister “all three left the apartment together which was more than they had done for months, and went by tram into the open country outside the town. The tram, in which they were the only passengers, was filled with warm sunshine. Leaning comfortably back in their seats, they canvassed their prospects for the future…” (88).
The family’s hopes are projected onto Grete, who is described as imbued with possibility: The Samsas “became aware of their daughter’s increasing vivacity…she had bloomed into a pretty girl with a good figure. They grew quieter and half unconsciously exchanged glances of complete agreement, having come to the conclusion that it would soon be time to find a good husband for her.
“And it was like a confirmation of their new dreams and excellent intentions that at the end of their journey their daughter sprang to her feet first and stretched her young body” (89).
Kafka’s writing does not fit easily into any particular movement or category of literature. However, in addition to the absurdist tradition, his writing shares some characteristics of two artistic movements/philosophies: 1. Existentialism & 2. Modernism
Existentialism in Literature http: //www. storybites. com/literaryterms/existentialism-in-literature. php
Modernism http: //www. storybites. com/literaryterms/modernism-in-literature. php
http: //www. youtube. com/ watch? list=UUe. Om. RYEL Wb 3 sn. Sbg. BCLGbkg&v= _H 57 Ofsih. Aw&feature=pl ayer_detailpage
Works Cited “Absurdist Tradition. ” The Literary Link. Ed. Janice E. Patten. June 2, 1998. San Jose State University Web Site. [28 September 2012] <http: //www. sjsu. edu/faculty/patten/index. html>. Bernardo, Karen. “Existentialism in Literature. ” 2011. [28 September 2012] <http: //www. storybites. com/literary-terms/existentialism-in-literature. php 28>. Bernardo, Karen. “Modernism in Literature. ” 2011. [28 September 2012] <http: //www. storybites. com/literary-terms/existentialism-in-literature. php 28 Brothers Grimm. The Complete Fairy Tales. Trans. Jack Zipes. Toronto: Bantam Books, 1987. Hood, Robert. “Metamorphosis: Unleashing the Bug Exclusive. ” 2011 January. [28 September 2012] http: //roberthood. net/blog/index. php/2011/01/01/metamorphos. Is-unleashing-the-bugexclusive/. Kafka, Franz. Selected Stories of Franz Kafka. Trans. Willa and Edwin Muir. Intro Rahv, Philip. New York: Random House/The Modern Library, 1957. Kafka, Franz. The Complete Stories. Ed. Nahum N. Glatzer. New York: Shocken Books, Inc. , 1983. Metamorphosis. Dir. Chris Swanton. Prod. Attractive Features and Rockkiss Digital Media, 2012. Metamorphosis: The Movie Web Site. http: //www. metamorphosisthemovie. com/metamorphosiskafka/index. html. Thomson, Ian. Rev. of Kathi Diamant’s Kafka’s Last Love. The Observer Web. 9 August 2003. 31 Oct. 2012. http: //www. guardian. co. uk/books/2003/aug/10/biography. features? INTCMP=SRCH. Youtube. Trailer of Chris Swanton’s Metamorphosis. http: //www. youtube. com/watch? list=UUe. Om. RYELWb 3 sn. Sbg. BCLGbkg&v=_ H 57 Ofsih. Aw&feature=player_detailpage
Suggested (Annotated) Web Sites Coyne, Stacy M. “Kafka and Postmodernism. ” 26 May 2006. [2 Oct. 2012]. http: //voices. yahoo. com/kafka-postmodernism-38542. html? cat=38. In this brief article, Coyne establishes features of The Metamorphosis that place it in a “postmodern” rubric. Her main premise is that “Kafka's allusions to Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's Venus in Furs emphasizes intertextual realities rather than the reality of the world around the Samsa family. In other words, the allusion to Venus in Furs, while at first hinting that it may offer clues regarding Gregor Samsa’s transformation, ultimately, provides evidence that Kafka was borrowing from Sacher’Masoch’s work, but the allusion does little to expand the reader’s understanding of Gregor Samsa’s enigmatic transformation. This article would be more appropriate for an AP class. Kafka, Franz. “The Metamorphosis” e-text. The complete story is available online. This web site includes a biography. http: //www. kafka-online. info/the-metamorphosis. html. Klaudinyi, J. “Kafka’s Die Verwandlung, or The Metamorphosis. ” Thesis. 2005. This undergraduate thesis provides an examination of how the Grimm Brothers’ Fairy Tales influenced two authors: Gogol and Kafka. Both Gogol and Kafka utilize the transformation theme, but invert the trope to suite their absurdist intentions. The morals and lessons built into the Grimm Brothers’ translations of traditional German folk tales are absent from the later two authors’ works; in fact, the nuclear family, government, gender roles, and society’s beliefs in the order and justice in the traditional systems are all cast in an existential, absurdist inversion or reversal of such paradigms. While both Gogol and Kafka merge and overlap the unreal (fantasy) with the real, they provide no magically redeeming solution to their characters’ predicaments. https: //scholarsbank. uoregon. edu. xmlui/bitstream/. . . thesis. pdf? . . . 6.
Mohan, Rachel D. “The Psychology of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. ” 16 June 2006. [1 Oct. 2012]. http: //voices. yahoo. com/the-psychology-metamorphosis-franz-kafka-45129. html? cat=72. As the title suggests, Mohan provides a concise psychological reading of the novella, suggesting that mental illness causes his body/mind separation . Niolon, Richard, Ph. D. “Erickson’s Psychosocial Stages of Development. ” http: //www. psychpage. com/learning/library/person/erikson. html. This web site has nothing to do with Kafka, per se. However, it is a handy reference for students interested in pursuing the psychobiographical reading of Kafka’s work. After examining biographical information on Kafka, how would you gage Gregor Samsa’s progress in each of Erickson’s stages? Nabokov, Vladimir. “Lecture on The Metamorphosis. The Kafka Project. Ed. Maro Nervi. http: //www. kafka. org/index. php? id=191, 209, 0, 0, 1, 0 This lecture, originally presented to an Ithaca College audience in 1954, is reproduced here. Nabakov discusses the symbolism of the insect image, the roles of the family (as insect-like parasites), and the significance of the number 3 in the novella. Nowak, Jeff. Ed. Franz Kafka: Das Schloss. A Site For Franz Kafka. http: //www. themodernword. com/kafka_intro. html This web site contains an excellent biography of Kafka as well as a good bibliography of critical resources.
Recommended Reading • Bouson, J. Brooks. “Insect Transformation as a Narcissistic Metaphor in Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. ” In The Empathic Reader: A Study of the Narcissistic Character and the Drama of the Self, 51 -63. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1989. Quoted as “Insect Transformation as a Narcissistic Metaphor in Kafka’s Metamorphosis” in Bloom, Harold, ed. The Metamorphosis, New Edition, Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2008. • Evans, Robert C. “Aspects of the Grotesque in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. ” In Bloom, Harold, ed. The Grotesque, Bloom’s Literary Themes. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2009.
Image Credits • • • • “American Cockroach. ” http: //www 3. allaroundphilly. com/blogs/trentonian/weird/2007_10_01_archive. html “Attic Room. ” Image credit: <a href='http: //www. 123 rf. com/photo_5779104_attic-room-in-old-manor-house-spookyinterior-with-peeling-walls-and-wallpaper. html'>tlorna / 123 RF Stock Photo</a> Image ID: 5779104 “Beetle. ” http: //vintageprintable. com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Animal%20 -%20 Insect%20%20 Beetle%20 type%20 bug%202, %20 French%2019 th%20 C%20 mod. jpg “Berlin Transit. ” http: //www. jmberlin. de/berlin-transit/bilder/begleitprogramm-literarischer-salon. jpg Blair, Jeffrey. “Cockroach. ” http: //www 3. aichi-gakuin. ac. jp / ~jeffreyb / SVO / roaches. html Dora Diamant. C 1925. The Lask Collection. http: //www. Kafkaproject. com. Eichler, H. O. Eichler Artistic Portraits studio. New York, NY. cabinetcardgallery. wordpres. . . Eleanor Clay Ford, wife of Edsel Bryan Ford, in her wedding dress, 1916. From Wikimedia Commons. http: //store. tidbitstrinkets. com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/1916 Estate of P. P. Chistyakov. The Russian Museum of Fine Arts. http: //images. search. yahoo. com/images/view; _ylt=A 0 PDo. V 3 Aa. DZQjw 0 AG 1 GJzbk. F; _ylu= Faded Luxury Living Room. http: //decoratorsnotebook. files. wordpress. com/2011/10/faded-luxury-living-room. jpg Friedrich, Caspar David. Forest at the End of Autumn. wikipaintings. org Hager, James. Photographic Print Two Dung Beetles Rolling a Dung Ball, Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa, Africa. http: //www. postersguide. com/posters/two-dung-beetles-rolling-a-dung-ball-addo-elephant-nationalpark-south-africa-6056043. html Hammershio, Vilhelm. Interior with a Young Woman Sweeping. http: //www. oceanbridge. com/oilpaintings/product/116250/interiorwithayoungwomansweeping “Haunted Room. ” http: //1. bp. blogspot. com/-P 4 Try. Emu 9 qg/T 7 kebe. Ic. E 6 I/AAAAAD 4/Qpmc 2 b. Vdx 4/s 1600/2844710051_417 e 8 f 5 fdb_z. jpg
• “House Attic. ” http: //infocult. typepad. com/photos/uncategorized/2007/10/28/house_attic. jpg • Johnstone, Chris. “Bank vaults could deliver Franz Kafka literary treasure trove. ” 20 -07 -2010. Radio Prague Online. http: //img. radio. cz/pictures/spisovatele/brod_max 2. jpg • “Kafka’s Parents. ” http: //swc 2. hccs. edu/htmls/Row. HTML/kafka/intro. htm • Korb, Erzsébet - Girl's Portrait (Thinker; Contemplation) ca 1923. jpg http: //commons. wikimedia. org/wiki/File: Korb, _Erzs%C 3%A 9 bet__Girl's_Portrait_(Thinker; _Contemplation)_ca_1923. jpg • Langhans, J. F. (1851 -1926). http: //cabinetcardgallery. wordpress. com/category/czechoslovakia/ • Manuscript Photo: EPA. http: //english. ruvr. ru/2010/07/20/12921679. html • Milena Jesenska. Yad Vashem’s “The Righteous Among the Nations: Milena Jesenska—Czech Republic. ” http: //www 1. yadvashem. org/yy/en/righteous/stories/jesenska. asp. • Old Mansion. http: //beaudelish. tumblr. com/post/27883017014 • Open Door. http: //sobersong. org/Graphics/Open. Door. jpg • Orkin. Brown-banded Cockroach. http: //www. google. com/imgres? q=cockroach&num=10&hl=en&biw=1280&bih=690&tbm=isch&tbnid=28 Gf. LFBUo. YG 0 OM: &imgrefurl=http: //www. orkin. com/cockroaches/brown-banded- • Portrait of Franz Kafka. The Bodleian Libraries and Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach, jointly to purchase Franz Kafka ‘Letters to Ottla’ archive 4 April 2011 http: //www. bodleian. ox. ac. uk/news/2011 -april-04 • “Parents of the Bride. ” http: //farm 4. static. flickr. com/3297/3204650972_df 949 d 2181. jpg • “Picture of Prague Buildings. ” http: //www. flickr. com/photos/pablosanchez/538751589/sizes/l/in/photostream/ • “Poster for Metamorphosis, 2011. ” http: //metamorphosisthemovie. com/metamorphosis-kafka/ • “Raven. ” http: //www. freeclipartnow. com/animals/birds/ravens/Raven. jpg. html • “Raven. ” static. howstuffworks. com/gif/willow/raven-info 0. gif
• “Victorian Girl. ” http: //www. polyvore. com/free_victorian_images_public_domain/thing? id=21036265 • “Victorian Lady. ” http: //www. flickr. com/photos/neefer/galleries/72157622411782625 http: //www. flickr. com/photos/farfalla_design_stud io/favorites/page 4/? view=lg • “Vintage Wedding Photo. ” http: //petalena. files. wordpress. com/2008/08/vintage-wedding-1920. jpg • “Vintage Woman Playing Violin. ” https: //www. flickr. com/photos/flowersdaysgonebye/galleries/72157622507255577/ • “Vintage Woman with Violin. ” http: //i. ytimg. com/vi/v 3 Qvn. HTu 7 Rk/0. jpg • “Young Couple. ” http: //farm 1. staticflickr. com/220/507248108_7 dce 8 b 7 be 9. jpg • ”Vintage • ”Woman in White Muff. ” http: //media-cache 0. pinterest. com/upload/11540542764866922_r. DDcfb 2 q_b. jpg • Portrait of Kafka. http: //www. poemas-del-alma. com/blog/especiales/historia-kafka-muneca-perdida • Semenenko, Alexander. (Studios). Russian Education Administrator, circa 1900. Radio: The Voice of Russia Online 07/20/2010 http: //cabinetcardgallery. wordpress. com/category/russia/ • The Procession of Black Hats. http: //www. worldhum. com/features/travelstories/the_procession_of_black_hats_20080611/ • Von Guerard, Eugene. “Autrailian Landscapes. ” http: //publicdomainreview. org/2011/08/15/eugene-von-guerardsaustralian- • Wedding Day. http: //store. tidbitstrinkets. com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/scan 00301. jpg
Play The Metamorphosis Board Game (based on the novella by Franz Kafka)
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