Franz Kafka (1883-1924), a German-speaking Bohemian Jewish novelist, was one of the foremost writers of the 20th century. His novels The Judgement (1913) and The Trial (1925), cemented his reputation as a writer. Kafka had a concise style of writing and the themes of despair and alienation were recurrent in his works. He was also a writer of fine short stories that were existentialist in tone. Although he received little literary attention while he was alive, Kafka became an important figure of German literature when his close friend and literary executor, Max Brod, refused to destroy his novels, diaries and letters upon his death, as was instructed by Kafka. The term Kafkaesque derives from Kafka's name and denotes the nightmarish, absurd and oppressive situations that the protagonists often face in his works. Kafka died of tuberculosis, aged 40.
I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself. Originally published in German as die verwandlung (1915), The metamorphosis is one of the Austrian writer Franz Kafka finest stories. A masterpiece of absurdist ‘Kafkaesque’ fiction, The novella traces the life of a salesman, Gregor SA MS a, who wakes up one day to find himself transformed into a hideous insect. With its myriad psychological, sociological, feminist and artistic interpretations, this novella remains a favourite amongst literary critics. Subsequent writers of absurdist fiction were deeply inspired by the metamorphosis, that has been adapted into film, television and theatre since it was first published.
