What is Metamorphosis?

2. What is Metamorphosis? • Metamorphosis is a novella written in 1912 by Franz Kafka. • Novella: • Longer, more complex than short stories • Focuses on a limited number of characters and events

3. Meaning • When you think of the term “metamorphosis”, what comes to mind? How can this be applied to literature? In what ways have you seen this in other works of literature? • Discuss – 2 minutes

4. The meaning behind it… • Definition: • a transformation, as if by magic or sorcery • Marked change in appearance • (usually used in Biology describing the transformation of insects)

5. Questions to Consider 1. Mental Health vs. Physical Health – Which is more important and why? 2. What human conditions or situations could lead to isolation in contemporary society? What about in this school? 3. Many people proclaim “Live with no regrets.” Is this possible? Why does regret exist, and what kind of influence can it have on a person? 4. Why do gender roles exist? Are gender roles sexist? 5. What is the importance of family?

6. Setting the Scene • The protagonist of the story, Gregor Samsa, is the son of middle-class parents in Prague.  • Gregor’s father lost most of his money about five years earlier, causing Gregor to take a job with one of his father's creditors as a travelling salesman, which causes him to feel isolated and alone. • Gregor provides the sole support for his family (father, mother, and sister), and also found them their current lodgings in Prague. • When the story begins, Gregor is spending a night at home with his family before embarking upon another business trip. And then. . .  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H57OfsihAw

7. Part I: A Famous Opening Line • “As GregorSamsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a giant insect” (958). • Compare with another famous opening line . . . • “It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen” (Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four 1). • What do these two lines have in common?

8. Compare the beginnings to the endings: • “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a giant insect” (958). • “It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen” (Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four 1).

9. Both sentences make their points through defamiliarization: • They initially describe normal, everyday, almost boring events, only to disrupt this sense of normalcy at the very end. • The disruption of the reader’s expectation is sometimes called a defamiliarization effect – in German, Verfremdungseffekt, which translates as “alienation effect.”

10. Lost in Translation? • English translators have often sought to render the word Ungeziefer as “insect,” but this is not entirely accurate, as, in German, Ungeziefer literally means “vermin” and is sometimes used colloquially to mean "bug,“ which is a much more vague term than “insect.” • Why might “vermin” actually be more appropriate?

11. Lost in Translation? • “Vermin” can either be defined as a parasite feeding off the living (as is Gregor's family feeding off him), or a vulnerable entity that scurries away upon another’s approach, as Gregor does for most of the narrative after his transformation.

12. Significance • Improbable or even impossible events in fiction often ask us to consider what the larger meaning of these events may be. • By disrupting our normal perspective on reality, these unusual plotlines force us to ask profound questions.

13. Significance • Writers often use fantastic events to signify additional levels of meaning beyond the literal. • Thus, we need to ask ourselves what Gregor’s metamorphosis signifies in terms of larger issues.

14. How does this relate to Kafka’s life? • 1883-1924 • Born in Prague (in what is now the Czech Republic) to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family • Eldest of six children, two of whom died in infancy • Parents were hard workers and often labored 12 hours a day. • First studied chemistry but left shortly after. Had a doctorate in law, but worked in the insurance industry. • Lost his sisters during the Holocaust where they died in a concentration camp after being sent to the ghettos.

15. Kafka’s challenges • Suffered from tuberculosis and was financially supported by his family during his frequent convalescence. • Feared being perceived as repulsive both physically and mentally by others yet tried to impress others with his boyish, neat and austere good looks. He maintained a quiet and cool demeanor with a dry sense of humor. • Distanced himself from his family when he relocated to Berlin to concentrate on his writing. • Suffered from clinical depression and social anxiety his entire life. • Also suffered from migraines, insomnia, constipation, boils and other ailments brought on by excessive stresses. • Died from tuberculosis on June 3, 1924 in a Vienna sanatorium.

16. Themes and structure • Kafka’s writings often deal with loneliness, isolation, and alienation, all of which are aggravated by the social and economic systems that structure human relations. • His style is stark – in spite of the strange subject matter in many of his works, there is no poetic or metaphoric language. • The Metamorphosis (written in 1912, published in 1915) is probably his most famous work. • “Kafkaesque” is a term meaning Anything having to do with alienation, absurdity, anxiety or isolation.