Print ISBN: 978-1-58765-840-2
# of Pages: 360
# of Volumes: 1
Print List Price: $105
Add to Cart
eBook Info
e-ISBN: 978-1-58765-892-1
eBook User Price: $105
Free Online Access
Spread the Word
Download a Free Poster

Download and print a poster to promote your titles in your school or library.

Critical Insights: The Metamorphosis

Editor: James Whitlark, Texas Tech University
September 2011

Tags: 3 Introductory Essays4 Critical Context Essays10 Critical Readings EssaysCurrent Critical Analysis by Top Literary ScholarsIntroductory Essay by the EditorComplete List of Author's WorksChronology of Author's LifeDetailed Bio of the EditorGeneral BibliographyPublication Dates of WorksGeneral Subject Index

Download: Table of Contents Sample Pages
This volume includes a biography which warns that, although The Metamorphosis is considered semi-autobiographical, it is ultimately a work of imagination. Other essays include a discussion of structure, cultural and historical contexts, Kafka's metaphor for extreme alienation, and a survey of the work's critical reception.

Approximately a hundred years ago, Franz Kafka composed his most famous novella, The Metamorphosis. The story is a psychological catalyst, transforming whoever contacts it, therefore always different, always up to date. Largely through The Metamorphosis the very name of Kafka is so well known "Kafkaesque" has become a general adjective. So much has been written about or inspired by The Metamorphosis that this volume appropriately provides not merely essential data about it but also an understanding of how it has been affecting readers.

This Critical Insight considers the impact Kafka's work has had on the Nobel-Prize Winner, Ellie Wiesel and his Night. Another essay shows quite coherently how The Metamorphosis protagonists' absolutely overmatched, hopeless struggle resembles the plight of homosexuals a la Freud.

The Metamorphosis is certainly not a literal portrait of anything. It represents being neglected and otherwise abused, so that an understandable response is to notice people like the reader (whoever that reader may be) undergoing a similar fate.

Each Critical Insights is divided into four sections:

An Introduction on the book and the author

Critical Contexts
The essays aim to provide a background to the title and author that is an historical, cultural, and biographical foundation for the reader.

Critical Readings
These essays utilize common critical approaches to further analyze the author's work.

Each essay is 2,500-5,000 words in length and all essays conclude with a list of "Works Cited," along with endnotes.

Additional Resources:

  • Chronology of Franz Kafka's Life
  • Works by Franz Kafka
  • Bibliography
  • About the Editor
  • About The Paris Review
  • Contributors
  • Index

View a Full List of Literature Titles

Additional Titles of Interest

April 2017

Critical Insights: Flash Fiction

This first-of-its-kind volume on flash fiction-prose of no more than 1,000 words-tracks the development and critical context of this international literary genre. Essays look at both prominent forebearers and current practitioners including Kate Chopin, Franz Kafka, Julio Cortazar, Amy Hempel, and Lydia Davis.

January 2010

Critical Survey of Long Fiction

Offers 678 profiles of major writers of long fiction throughout history and the world, including analyses of their significant novels and novellas. Discusses the novel in overview essays by time period, country, ethnicity, and genre, and provides valuable resource material.

January 2012

Critical Survey of Short Fiction

This Critical Survey was originally published in 1981, with a supplement in 1987 and revised editions in 1993 and 2001. The Fourth Edition includes all writers from the previous edition and adds 145 new ones, covering 625 writers in total. Altogether, the writers covered in this set represent 44 countries and the history of short fiction from antiquity to the 21st century. The set also offers 53 informative overviews; 24 of these essays were added for this edition, including all the literary movement essays. In addition, seven resources are provided, two of them new. Author portraits are included as available.