Franz Kafka and Literary Criticism

These two essays explore Kafka's universe in two of his writings the canonical 'The Metamorphosis' and the little-known 'The Burrow'. Both narratives, each with a fantastic animal as the central character, present a series of existentially blocked situations. In 'Metamorphosis', the father-son relationship is problematic right from the start, but it is the brother-sister relation, to be specific the elder brother-younger sister relation that is crucial. Ultimately Gregor Samsa's death is the only possible way-out of this nightmare. Similar human predicaments and psychic complexities are presented in 'The Burrow'. Possessed with the idea of a soundproof house secure from trespassers, a restless creature sweats, slogs and suffers. He spends his entire youth constructing such a burrow. There is an endless and a hopeless search for a perfect existence. This semiotic study shows that human conditions are not static but in constant movement. The book is not just for the die-hard Kafka lovers. It is meant for all the literature enthusiasts who seek the author first and foremost in his writing and not in his history, personal or collective.