The story of The Trial's publication is almost as fascinating as the novel itself. Kafka intended his parable of alienation in a mysterious bureaucracy to be burned, along with the rest of his diaries and manuscripts, after his death in 1924. Yet his friend Max Brod pressed forward to prepare The Trial and the rest of his papers for publication. When the Nazis came to power, publication of Jewish writers such as Kafka was forbidden; Kafka's writings, many of which have distinctively Jewish themes, did not find a broad audience until after World War II.
The Metamorphosis (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations)
Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" climaxes in the very first line - the protagonist has indeed been transformed. The critical questions lie in the interpretation of the transformation. Kafka has been said to have offered everything from a psychological parable of the Oedipal struggle to a caricature of psychological readings. In this collection of new critical essays, Kafka's life and other works are featured as well as notes on the essay contributors.
The stories of this turn-of-the-century writer concern the disillusionment of modern man. To Kafka and to the people in his stories, life is often absurd and meaningless, with only a faint ray of fleeting hope.
This concise supplement to Kafka's The Metamorphosis and other stories helps students understand the overall structure of the works, actions and motivations of the characters, and the social and cultural perspectives of the author.
This volume also covers The Judgment, A Hunger Artist, A Country Doctor, In the Penal Colony, The Hunter Gracchus, The Burrow, Investigations of a Dog, A Report to an Academy, The Great Wall of China, and Josephine the Singer or the Mouse Folk.
