Franz Kafka wrote his novella

in 1912 and it was first published in 1915. Though Kafka is associated with the Modernist movement that would include figures such as T. S. Eliot and James Joyce, his writing is not formally experimental in the manner of Eliot's

or Joyce's

. His writing, however, exhibits a literary self-consciousness that is characteristic of Modernism.

is, for example, a difficult work to pin down. Is it realism or fantasy or allegory? It's hard to say categorically and this creates an uneasy relationship between text and reader. Questions concerning how one should read such a text are implicitly raised so that interpreting this story of a man who is transformed into a giant insect is not straightforward.

It is

1843 words

Citation: Newton, Ken. "Die Verwandlung". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 February 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3593, accessed 25 November 2024.]