La Metaforfosis Y Otros Relatos

by Franz Kafka

ficción

Paperback

Published January 1, 2005

About the author

Franz Kafka was a German-speaking writer from Prague whose work became one of the foundations of modern literature, even though he published only a small part of his writing during his lifetime. Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kafka grew up amid German, Czech, and Jewish cultural influences that shaped his sense of displacement and linguistic precision. His difficult relationship with his authoritarian father left a lasting mark, fostering feelings of guilt, anxiety, and inadequacy that became central themes in his fiction and personal writings.
Kafka studied law at the German University in Prague, earning a doctorate in 1906. He chose law for practical reasons rather than personal inclination, a compromise that troubled him throughout his life. After university, he worked for several insurance institutions, most notably the Workers Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. His duties included assessing industrial accidents and drafting legal reports, work he carried out competently and responsibly. Nevertheless, Kafka regarded his professional life as an obstacle to his true vocation, and most of his writing was done at night or during periods of illness and leave. Kafka began publishing short prose pieces in his early adulthood, later collected in volumes such as Contemplation and A Country Doctor. These works attracted little attention at the time but already displayed the hallmarks of his mature style, including precise language, emotional restraint, and the application of calm logic to deeply unsettling situations. His major novels The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika were left unfinished and unpublished during his lifetime. They depict protagonists trapped within opaque systems of authority, facing accusations, rules, or hierarchies that remain unexplained and unreachable. Themes of alienation, guilt, bureaucracy, law, and punishment run throughout Kafka’s work. His characters often respond to absurd or terrifying circumstances with obedience or resignation, reflecting his own conflicted relationship with authority and obligation. Kafka’s prose avoids overt symbolism, yet his narratives function as powerful metaphors through structure, repetition, and tone. Ordinary environments gradually become nightmarish without losing their internal coherence. Kafka’s personal life was marked by emotional conflict, chronic self-doubt, and recurring illness. He formed intense but troubled romantic relationships, including engagements that he repeatedly broke off, fearing that marriage would interfere with his writing. His extensive correspondence and diaries reveal a relentless self-critic, deeply concerned with morality, spirituality, and the demands of artistic integrity. In his later years, Kafka’s health deteriorated due to tuberculosis, forcing him to withdraw from work and spend long periods in sanatoriums. Despite his illness, he continued writing when possible. He died young, leaving behind a large body of unpublished manuscripts. Before his death, he instructed his close friend Max Brod to destroy all of his remaining work. Brod ignored this request and instead edited and published Kafka’s novels, stories, and diaries, ensuring his posthumous reputation.
The publication of Kafka’s work after his death established him as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. The term Kafkaesque entered common usage to describe situations marked by oppressive bureaucracy, absurd logic, and existential anxiety. His writing has been interpreted through existential, religious, psychological, and political perspectives, though Kafka himself resisted definitive meanings. His enduring power lies in his ability to articulate modern anxiety with clarity and restraint.

Reviews

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha encantado ver el mundo a través de los ojos del bicho.

[Evoleth Contreras · Rating 4 out of 5]

!SPOILER¡ "la metaforfosis" es una narración que cuenta la historia de un narrador omniciente con el que se va relatando que gregorio samsam tras un sueño intranquilo se despierta de una forma extraña al sentir un caparazón duro preguntandose "que me ha ocurrido" en el cual su mayor preocupación era que no podría ir a trabajar ya que en su sueño intranquilo se hartaba de trabajar.

Un aspecto literario que resalta de la obra es como gregorio samsam se siente como un insecto despreciable de si mismo el cual ha traído consecuencias en su familia y en el como también ya no serviría en su familia para pagar su deuda, lo empezaron a tratar diferente por ya no ser un gran factor económico y comienza ha estar más aislado en su familia y la única en estar preocupada por el es su hermana Gretel, con el cual señor samsam busca huéspedes como remplazo económico para poder pagar la deuda ya que gregorio no podría trabajar. Además se menciona que el padre de Gregorio decidiera hechar a Gregorio de su hogar para Haci mantener cómodos a los huéspedes, también se menciona que su familia mantenía encerrado a Gregorio para que los huéspedes no lo vieran priorizando a los huéspedes que a su propio hijo dándole la espalda.

En mi opinión, se puede encontrar triste la historia el como se narra el aislamiento en su familia y ya no ser un factor económico para pagar la deuda y usar los ahorros de Gregorio para así poder mantenerse. Además de como el símbolo del insecto se representa en Gregorio en la soledad y el intento de escapar como su muerte.

[Άργι · Rating 4 out of 5]

Debo admitir que la primera vez no me gustó y sentí una repulsión increíble, pero luego me encantó estudiarla y entendí que hacerme sentir así era el propósito de la obra. Sin embargo, no podría volver a leerla.

[ADRIAN SEN · Rating 1 out of 5]

Raro e infumable, no lo recomiendo

[isa ˙ᵕ˙ · Rating 5 out of 5]

me encantó, te hace ver las cosas de otra manera, le tomé mucho cariño.