Franz Kafka1883-1924

The Metamorphosis

• Written 1912; Published 1915

• Critical reception mixed

“black” literature-or-

a social “warning”?

• Since, a popular and critical favorite

The Importance of Prague to Kafka’s Work

• Surrounded by history• Mixing of different peoples = isolation for Kafka• Cut off in language (Prague German)• At the same time of German expressionism

Three Interpretations of The Metamorphosis

1. Biographical/ Psychoanalytical – blames Gregory

2. Humanistic – blames the family

3. Kafka as Prophet

1. Biographical/ Psychoanalytical Interpretation

• Office work• Family life• Kafka’s own testimony:– “Is it perhaps delicate and discreet to talk about the bugs

in one’s own family?”– In response to a friend calling the story a “terrible dream,”

Kafka responded: “The dream reveals the reality[…]That is the horror of life—the terror of art.”

It’s Kafka’s repressed anger toward his family behind Gregory’s actions, desire for attention

2. Humanistic Interpretation (Nabokov’s Response)

Nabokov calls Freud a “Viennese witch doctor”

His points:• Clarity and precision of the language in contrast to the

“nightmare” world it describes – No authorial intrusions

• As Gregory’s condition worsens, the family flourishes– “Gregor is a human being in an insect’s disguise; his family are

insects disguised as people”

Family requires and brings about Gregory’s demise

3. Kafka as Prophet(Milan Kundera)

Poets don’t invent poemsThe poem is somewhere behindIt’s been there for a long long timeThe poet merely discovers it.

- Jan Skacel

The Metamorphosis as prophecy– Totalitarianism– Bureaucracy (Nazis)– Dehumanizing

“Kafka’s nightmare of a world…has actually come to pass.” Hannah Arendt, 1944

What to make of the ending?

Gregory’s death is calm. It lacks resentment. He seems to agree that he needs to die…why?

And yet, Meg’s blossoming at the end…is this satirical, the glances of her parents calculated?

Kafka noted this a year after writing the story:“Great dislike of ‘Metamorphosis.’ Unreadable ending. Imperfect almost to the bottom. It would have been better if I had not been disturbed by the business trip.”