1. “The Metamorphosis” Franz Kafka

2.  Franz Kafka depicts the separation and alienation of modern man.  Kafka delineates a distorted world—one of anxiety and bitterness.  This disturbing world is reflected in the various novel covers shown below.

3. Modernism 1. Modernism= radical shift in aesthetic and cultural sensibilities of art and literature in post WWI period. 2. The 19 th century, Victorian ordered, stable view of the world could not accord with the, as T.S. Eliot put it, “immense panorama of futility and anarchy” of the modern age. 3. Modernism= distinctive break from Victorian bourgeois (middle-class, material, traditional) morality and optimism, instead modernism embraced pessimism and moral relativism (belief that truth and reality are not absolute and may differ among individuals and cultures). 4. Modernism introduced a variety of new literary strategies and devices: illogical structure, stream of consciousness, fragmented, non-chronological plot, poetic style, different points of view (not straight 3 rd ), psychologically complex characters (Freud), etc. (reflects the complexity and volatility of the age) 5. Modernists often recognized the failure of language to fully express and communicate feelings and ideas (“Prufrock”). 6.Other elements: epiphany, emphasis of divided self (mask vs inner self), alienation in an urban world, artist as the hero Click here to listen to “Modern Man” by Arcade Fire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pVacgFGLqE

4. “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates

5. Socrates’ Allegory of the Cave https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=LTWwY8Ok5I0

6. Did Gregor Samsa examine his life?

7. EXISTENTIALISM 1.Philosophy focusing on the individual 2.Humans have free will and are responsible for the consequences of their actions. 3.Extremely few, if any, decisions are void of negative consequence. 4.Even when part of a group, each person acts and decides as an individual. 5.The world is essentially indifferent to humanity. 6.It’s up to the individual to give meaning to their life. 7.Existentialist philosophers included Jean-Paul Sartre, Soren Kierkegaard, and, yes, Franz Kafka.

8. Absurdism Philosophy originating in 19th century France asserting that our tendency to seek meaning in life is absurd because it is impossible to find. A branch of existentialism Asserts that human experience is absurd as seen through our constant search for meaning and the universe’s cold indifference toward our search Albert Camus

9. Think about the myth of Sisyphus

10. Edward Munch The Scream EXPRESSIONISM  Early 19 th century movement based on the belief that inner reality, or a person’s thoughts and feelings, are more important than the object or situation that causes the response  Expressed through symbolic characters, exaggeration, distortion, nightmarish imagery and fantasy  Grew out of paintings of Vincent van Gogh

11. Expressionism and Kafka https://prezi.com/gyar25glw2iu/franz-kafka- metamorphosis-expressionism/ https://prezi.com/gyar25glw2iu/franz-kafka- metamorphosis-expressionism/

12. Magical Realism Aesthetic style or genre of fiction Magical elements are blended into a realistic atmosphere, explained like normal occurrences, and presented in a straightforward manner Allows the real and fantastic to be accepted in the same stream of thought Attempts to help readers gain a deeper, more vivid insight into the nature of the world and humanity Especially popular in Latin America with authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende

14. Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung FREUDIANISM  A theory of psychology  Freud believed that every human action is influenced by the unconscious mind.  Early experiences, such as one’s relationship with one’s father, have a profound effect on the development of the unconscious.  Kafka experienced complex relations with his own father.

15. The Persistence of Memory Salvador Dali https://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=VJN0H93dXvs SURREALISM * “Super realism” developed in France in the 1920s as a reaction to realism. * It stressed the power of the imagination and dreams over conscious control. * It focused on combining unrelated images or events in a very strange, dreamlike way * Surrealist painters like Salvador Dali depicted objects as they would never appear in reality, such as his famous drooping watches.

16. Surrealism and “The Metamorphosis” https://prezi.com/ou-flacoq-zc/surrealism-in- the-metamorphosis/ https://prezi.com/ou-flacoq-zc/surrealism-in- the-metamorphosis/

17. Grotesque Artistic and literary form Distortion Exaggeration Often combines animal/human images Combines the real and the fantastic Combines humor and horror

18. Dark or Black Comedy Mixes the ghastly or horrifying with the comical Emphasizes the futility and senselessness of life Examples: Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Stangelove

19. WHAT QUESTIONS DOES THIS DISTURBING NOVELLA ADDRESS?  Is this only a psychological transformation of the mind?  Is this an actual physical transformation?  Is this an inner struggle that has manifested itself in both a physical and psychological change?  When we “transform,” do we lose our original identity?  In his morphing, what has Gregor escaped from?  Is Gregor’s transformation only in his mind?  Is the beetle Gregor’s innermost self?  Is it time for this self to confront Gregor?  Is the “metamorphosis” a rejection of all responsibility?  Is this a story of anxiety?  Is this story humorously disturbing?  How does guilt permeate the novella?

20. Is Gregor really a beetle?

21. Or… is Gregor experiencing a mental breakdown?

22. Is Gregor changing one identity for another?

23. FRANZ KAFKA  1883 – 1924  Born in Prague  German, Czech and Jewish heritage  Father – Hermann Kafka  Mother – Julie Lowy  Eldest of six children  Kafka died of tuberculosis.  His literary works are considered some of the finest of the 20 th century.  Greatest German writer of the 20 th century  His dying wish was to have all of his works destroyed.  Kafkaesque: (adj.) suggestive of Franz Kafka or his writings; having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality

24. “I am afraid of you.” Yes, Kafka was afraid of his father. In a letter of almost 100 pages, Kafka delineates the following points; however, his father never read the letter.  “{You raised me} with vigor, noise and a hot temper.”  “As a father you have been too strong for me—and for that I was much too weak.”  “This feeling of being nothing that often dominates me comes largely from your influence.”  “You really only encourage me in anything when you yourself are involved in it.”  “I was weighed down by your mere physical presence…I was skinny, weakly, slight; you strong, tall, broad…I felt a miserable specimen.”

25. Get Ready…. “The Metamorphosis”, I believe, is one of the saddest, most heart- wrenching stories you’ll ever read. But it is so superbly written; in fact, part of its sorrow lies within its beauty. “I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us… We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply… A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.” – Franz Kafka

26. The strange tale begins… (with art by Luis Scafati)

27.  The metamorphosis occurs in the early morning hours during the short period of sleep and one’s daily mundane routine. Many critics claim that the climax of the novella occurs in the first sentence of the story: “When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.”

29. “He was lying on his back as hard as armor plate, and when he lifted his head a little, he saw his vaulted brown belly…His many legs, pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest of him, were waving helplessly before his eyes.”

30. “Gregor slowly lugged himself toward the door, pushing the chair in front of him, then let go of it, once there, threw himself against the door, held himself upright against it—the pads on the bottom of his little legs exuded a little sticky substance—and for a moment rested there from the exertion.”

31. “Gregor’s father…seized in his his right hand the manager’s cane…picked up in his left hand a heavy newspaper from the table, and stamping his feet, started brandishing the cane and the newspaper to drive Gregor back into his room. No plea of Gregor’s helped, no plea was even understood.”

32. “For there stood a bowl filled with fresh milk in which small slices of white bread were floating, but…he didn’t like the milk at all although it used to be his favorite drink…”

33. “Only his sister had remained close to Gregor, and it was his secret plan that she, (who) could play the violin movingly, should be sent next year to the Conservatory.”

34. “…he would crawl up to the window sill and, propped up in the chair, lean against the window, evidently in some sort of remembrance of the feeling of freedom he used to have from looking out the window. For, in fact, from day to day he saw things even a short distance away les and less distinctly…”

35. “{Gregor} realized that the sight of him was still repulsive to her…and that she probably had to overcome a lot of resistance not to run away at the sight of even the small part of his body that jutted out from under the couch.”

36. “She ran into the next room to get some kind of spirits to revive her mother; Gregor wanted to help, too…he, too, ran into the next room, as if he could give his sister some sort of advice…(but) when she turned around she was startled, a bottle fell on the floor and broke, a splinter of glass wounded Gregor in the face, some kind of corrosive medicine flowed around him…”

37. “It was an apple; a second one came flying right after it; Gregor stopped dead with fear; further running was useless, for his father was determined to bombard him. One apple, thrown weakly, grazed Gregor’s back…But the very next one that came flying after it literally forced its way into Gregor’s back..”

38. “And yet the sister was playing beautifully. Gregor crawled forward a little farther, holding his head close to the floor so it might be possible to catch her eye. Was he an animal, that music could move him so?”

39. “It has to go,” cried his sister. “That’s the only answer, Father. You just have to try to get rid of the idea that it’s Gregor.” “He thought back on his family with deep emotion and love. His conviction that he would have to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister’s.”

40. Actor Tim Roth portrays Gregor Samsa in the 1987 movie Metamorphosis. Physically, he remains human, but what is transpiring in his convoluted mind?

41. Tim Roth in the 1987 movie

42. Tim Roth

43. https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v=VUhx2rNDpNk

44. Tim Roth

46. What does ”The Metamorphosis” teach us?  Many people find themselves conflicted in this modern age. They are torn between freedom and responsibility to both society and to family. It is within this conflict that guilt often arises, and oftentimes one’s reaction is to escape. Perhaps we should remember Polonius’s words in Hamlet. “This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

47. Musical Interpretations My favorite band, Radiohead, features a song, “Let Down” on their AMAZING album, Ok Computer. Here’s a video with the lyrics. Notice any references to Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_3P4lPtcZI