METAMORPHOSIS

FRANZ KAFKA
WHO IS FRANZ KAFKA?

● Franz Kafka (born

July 3, 1883, Prague, in
Czech Republic—died
June 3, 1924, Kierling,
near Vienna, Austria).
Kafka’s childhood.

● The figure of Kafka’s father

overshadowed his work as well as his
● Franz Kafka, the son of Julie Löwy and existence. The figure is, in fact, one of his
Hermann Kafka, a merchant, was born into a most impressive creations.
prosperous middle-class Jewish family.
● Kafka had a difficult relationship with both of
● In his imagination this coarse, practical, and
his parents. His mother, Julie, was a devoted domineering shopkeeper and patriarch who
homemaker who lacked the intellectual depth worshipped nothing but material success
to understand her son's dreams to become a and social advancement belonged to a race
writer.
● Kafka's father, Hermann, had a forceful of giants and was an awesome, admirable,
personality that often overwhelmed the Kafka but repulsive tyrant.
home.
Influence of his father on his works.

The conflict with the father is reflected directly in Kafka’s

story Das Urteil (1913; The Judgment). It is projected on a
grander scale in Kafka’s novels, which portray in lucid,
deceptively simple prose a man’s desperate struggle
with an overwhelming power, one that may
persecute its victim (as in The Trial) or one that may be
sought after and begged in vain for approval (as in Das
Schloss [1926; The Castle]).
Kafka and his father

● The roots of Kafka’s anxiety and despair go deeper than his relationship
with his father and family, with whom he chose to live in close and cramped
proximity for the major part of his adult life.
● The source of Kafka’s despair lies in a sense of ultimate isolation from
true communion with all human beings—the friends he cherished, the women
he loved, the job he detested, the society he lived in—and with God, or, as he
put it, with true indestructible Being.
Kafka’s ideas

● The son of an assimilated Jew who held only perfunctorily to the religious practices and social
formalities of the Jewish community, Kafka was German in both language and culture.
● He was a timid, guilt-ridden, and obedient child who did well in elementary school and in the Altstädter
Staatsgymnasium, an exacting high school for the academic elite. He was respected and liked by his
teachers.
● Inwardly, however, he rebelled against the authoritarian institution and the dehumanized
humanistic curriculum, with its emphasis on rote learning and classical languages.
● Kafka’s opposition to established society became apparent when, as an adolescent, he declared himself a
socialist as well as an atheist.
● Throughout his adult life he expressed qualified sympathies for the socialists, he attended meetings of
Czech anarchists (before World War I), and in his later years he showed marked interest and
sympathy for a socialized Zionism.
Societal isolation:

● As a Jew, Kafka was isolated from the German community in Prague.

● As a modern intellectual, he was also alienated from his own Jewish heritage. He was sympathetic to
Czech political and cultural aspirations, but his identification with German culture kept even these
sympathies subdued.
● Thus, social isolation and rootlessness contributed to Kafka’s lifelong personal
unhappiness.
Double life

● Kafka did, however, become friendly with some German Jewish intellectuals and literati in Prague,
and in 1902 he met Max Brod. This minor literary artist became the most intimate and solicitous of
Kafka’s friends, and eventually, as Kafka’s literary executor, he emerged as the promoter, saviour, and
interpreter of Kafka’s writings and as his most influential biographer.
● The two men became acquainted while Kafka was studying law at the University of Prague. He
received his doctorate in 1906, and in 1907 he took up regular employment with an insurance
company. The long hours and exacting requirements of the Assicurazioni Generali, however, did not
permit Kafka to devote himself to writing.
● In fact, generally speaking, Kafka was a charming, intelligent, and humorous individual, but he found
his routine office job and the exhausting double life into which it forced him (for his nights were
frequently consumed in writing) to be excruciating torture, and his deeper personal relationships were
neurotically disturbed
cont..

● His health was poor and office work exhausted him. In 1917 he was diagnosed as having tuberculosis,
and from then onward he spent frequent periods in sanatoriums.

● In 1923 Kafka went to Berlin to devote himself to writing. During a vacation on the Baltic coast later
that year, he met Dora Dymant (Diamant), a young Jewish socialist. The couple lived in Berlin until
Kafka’s health significantly worsened during the spring of 1924. After a brief final stay in Prague, where
Dymant joined him, he died of tuberculosis in a clinic near Vienna.
Works of Franz Kafka

● Sought out by leading avant-garde publishers, Kafka reluctantly published a few of his writings during
his lifetime.
● These publications include two sections (1909) from Beschreibung eines Kampfes (1936; Description
of a Struggle) and Betrachtung (1913; Meditation), a collection of short prose pieces. They also
include other works representative of Kafka’s maturity as an artist: The Judgment, written in 1912 and
published a year later; two other long stories, The Metamorphosis (published in 1915) and In der
Strafkolonie (1919; In the Penal Colony); and a collection of short prose, Ein Landarzt (1919; A
Country Doctor).
● Ein Hungerkünstler (1924; A Hunger Artist), four stories exhibiting the concision and lucidity
characteristic of Kafka’s late style, had been prepared by the author but did not appear until after his
death.
Avant- garde literary movement

1. Avant-garde is a French term that translates directly to “advance guard,” as in the first people to

encounter/experience something new. When applied to a piece of work, the descriptor refers to

something that pushes or breaks boundaries, innovates on techniques or aesthetics, or

challenges the norm with radical or bizarre ideas and presentation.

2. Avant-garde works are often experimental in nature and are sometimes reviled or condemned

upon release for challenging the status quo and being highly provocative in nature. Ultimately,

despite criticism, avant-garde works are often considered necessary to break new ground and move

the needle in the long run in terms of artistic expression and creative freedom.
Examples of Avant Garde

The name of this sculpture by Edgar Degas

translates as Little Dancer Aged Fourteen.

Degas created this piece back in 1880, a time

when this level of realism was far from
commonplace and when dancers were viewed
alongside prostitutes as low and unworthy
subjects. This simple piece was decried as “a
threat to society” by art critics of the time.
Av Avant Garde Characteristics:

● Applies to art, writing, film, and the artists behind them

● Often reviled upon initial release

● These ideas/works may seem tame in retrospect.

Summary of metamorphosis:

The story of The Metamorphosis is easily told. It is the

story of a travelling salesman by the name Gregor Samsa who
wakes up one morning transformed into a hideous and
monstrous vermin; he of course retains the human faculties
of thinking and feeling, he is held prisoner and hidden by
his family in his room. Finally he slowly goes to his ruin
and annihilation.
To be discussed with reference to metamorphosis:

● Existentialism
● Psychology
● language/ diction/ imagery
Existentialism

● Existentialism is the philosophical belief we are each responsible for creating purpose or meaning in
our own lives. Our individual purpose and meaning is not given to us by Gods, governments, teachers or
other authorities.
● Essentialism was founded by the Greek philosopher Aristotle who posited everything had an essence,
including us. An essence is “a certain set of core properties that are necessary, or essential for a thing to be
what it is”
● This was an immensely popular belief for thousands of years and gave considerable weight to religious
thought that placed emphasis on an omnipotent God who created each being with a
predetermined plan in mind.
cont..

● While philosophers including Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche questioned essentialism in
the 19th century, existentialism was popularised by Jean-Paul Sartre in the mid-20th century following
the horrific events of World War II.
● “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything
he does” – John-Paul Sartre
● The absurd
● Life can be silly. They define absurdity as the search for answers in an answerless world. It’s the idea of
being born into a meaningless place that then requires you to make meaning.
● The absurd posits there is no one truth, no inherent rules or guidelines. This means you have to
develop your own moral code to live by. Sartre cautioned looking to authority for guidance and
answers because no one has them and there is no one truth.
Existentialism and the Sense of Guilt in Literature

Another important concept in Existentialism is the sense of

guilt. Guilt occupies a significant place in the Western
literature. It emanates from the notion of the Original Sin.
The Metamorphosis is inhabited by many biblical echoes. The
notion of guilt that Gregor seems to experience is similar to the
biblical notion of Original Sin. Adam and Eve ate the apple, but
it is the rest of humanity that carries the guilt. As the
biblical lore says, all human beings are guilty of a sin they
have no control over. Therefore Gregor is guilty due to
metamorphosis beyond his control.
Psychological Aspect:

● According to Freud, people live in two selves simultaneously:

1. Conscious
2. Unconscious.

By the conscious Freud means thoughts and actions the

manifest content of one’s life. He calls the unconscious
the latent level. Freud says that there is a continuous
effort to keep the desires unconscious or latent.
Accordingly, there is a separation between a person and
his unconscious mind, which is called alienation.
Alienation

Alienation generally suggests depersonalization, self-estrangement,

cultural estrangement, the sense of meaninglessness and powerlessness.

Schizoid refers to an individual the totality of whose experience is

split in two main ways; in the first place, there is a rent (break) in
his relation with world, and in the second there is a disruption of his
relation with himself, he experiences himself in despairing aloneness
and isolation; moreover he does not experience himself as a complete
person, but rather as ‘split’ in various ways, perhaps a mind more or
less tenuously linked to a body, as two or more selves … such an
individual can no more live in a ‘secure’ world than he can be secure
in himself.
Exit Ticket

1. In one sentence, describe Kafka’s emotional world based on today’s class.

2. How might Kafka’s background influence the themes he writes about?

3. Which concept do you think will be most important for studying The
Metamorphosis — identity, culture, or transformation? Why?

4. One question you still have about Kafka or the novella: