La metamorfosis / Informe para una academia

by Franz Kafka

Puede afirmarse, sin titubear, que, en la literatura universal, hay un antes y un después de la aparición de La metamorfosis, en 1912. Con esta obra -¿novela corta o relato largo?-, el escritor judío Franz Kafka (Praga, 1883-Kierling, Viena, 1924) trazó premonitoriamente el perfil del siglo XX, un siglo que se estrenó con absurdas guerras -si existe alguna que no lo sea- y culminó con cotas de enajenación extremas, cuya capacidad destructiva pone en peligro la supervivencia de cada vez más amplios sectores de la humanidad y la existencia misma del planeta. El destino de Gregorio Samsa, el personaje, que un día amanece convertido en repugnante bicho, es una parábola perfecta- Otras novelas de Kafka -El castillo, América, El proceso- y sus cuentos confirman esta visión: Las estructuras en las que vivimos inmersos -es decir, nuestra existencia- se convierten, en algún momento, en poder, burocracia, alineación, coacción, guerra. Como ya está en boca de todos: la vida, en una cruel metamorfosis, se vuelve "kafkiana".

91 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1915

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

[Gorka Del Barrio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Posiblemente es de lo más extravagante que he leído, pero que en cierta medida me he sentido identificado en dos aspectos.

Me ha recordado la falta de identidad que a veces siento por desarraigo y por otro lado, he sentido mucha complicidad en lo referente a la excentricidad que puntualmente deposita en nosotros ciertos sentimientos que nos evoca el entorno o algunas personas.

[ScarLyss · Rating 3 out of 5]

El texto es tan corto qué no tengo mucho que decir, eso sí, me llamó bastante la atención leer este informe dado por un mono, no sé, es curioso

Si, me gustó, fue de cierta forma entretenido leerlo

[David Meditationseed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informe para uma Academia

Kafka provokes us in this story full of irony and sharp criticism on humanity, pointing out several times that finding an exit from a situation does not mean freedom; shows us the violence and idiocies of men, whether in their pleasures like smoking and alcohol; the zoo and the circus; and beyond all: the idea of ​​human power -the supreme specie before all other animals.

In this tale, it is a monkey that sees the poverty of man's spirit. He finds as the only way out for his survival, to live as a human in all stupidy, vanity and arrogance typical of humans. Because in that way, through the monkey's eyes, it is the only way out of its own survival. For him, it is preferable to live as a human than behind the bars of a cage in a zoo.

The criticism of man comes to one of his radical points, when the monkey describes his evolution: "through an effort that has not been repeated on earth until now, I have reached the average formation of a European. it was nothing, but it is something, since it helped me out of the cage and gave me this special exit, this human exit. There is an excellent quote in German idiom .... that's what I did, I fell out.I had no other always assuming that it was not possible to choose freedom. "

And again as in other tales, Kafka provokes us about laws, judgments and absurd explanations, in a situation also absurd and ironic: a monkey making a speech to intellectuals in a University: "I no longer want no judgment of men, I just want I only make a report, and to you, eminent members of the Academy, I have just presented a report. "

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Kafka nos provoca nessa história repleta de ironia e crítica afiada sobre a humanidade, apontando diversas vezes que encontrar uma saída de um situação não significa liberdade; nos mostra a violência e a idiotice dos homens, seja em seus prazeres como o fumo e a bebida alcoólica; o zoológico e o circo; e além de tudo: a ideia de poder, o da espécie suprema perante a todo os outros animais.

Nesse conto, é um macaco que vê a pobreza de espirito do homem. Ele encontra como única saída para sua sobrevivência, viver como um idiota humano em toda sua idiotice, vaidade e arrogância típicas humanas. Porque dessa forma, pelos olhos do macaco, é a única saída à sua própria sobrevivência. Para ele, é preferível viver como um humano do que atrás das grades de uma jaula em um zoológico.

A crítica ao homem chega a um dos seus pontos radicais, quando o macaco descreve sua evolução: "através de um esforço, que até agora não se repetiu sobre a terra, cheguei à formação média de um europeu. Em si mesmo, talvez isso não fosse nada, mas é alguma coisa, uma vez que me ajudou a sair da jaula e me propiciou essa saída especial, essa saída humana. Existe uma excelente expressão idiomática alemã ....foi o que fiz, caí fora. Eu não tinha outro caminho, sempre supondo que não era possível escolher a liberdade".

E mais uma vez como em outros contos, Kafka nos provoca sobre leis, julgamentos e explicações absurdas, em uma situação também absurda - a do macaco fazendo um discurso para intelectuais em uma Universidade: "no mais não quero nenhum julgamento dos homens, quero apenas difundir conhecimentos; faço tão somente um relatório; também aos senhores, eminentes membros da Academia, só apresentei um relatório".

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Corto y sencillo, pero terriblemente emotivo. Pensaba que ya lo había leído en mi adolescencia, pero siendo sinceros, o no me impactó mucho en su momento o lo dejé a mitad.
Tenía el presentimiento de que a estas alturas mis sentimientos serían completamente diferentes, y así ha sido. Me ha encantado la historia, a la vez que me ha entristecido.
También agradezco la biografía de Kafka al principio porque es imprescindible para la interpretar esta obra y entender lo que esta significó para el autor.

[Amy14 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Le pongo un 3,5 a la Metamorfosis, este relato corto que se lee de un tirón. Es increíble como el autor se puede meter en la piel, en el exoesqueleto en este caso, de un insecto.
Informe para una academia no me ha parecido tan creíble como la Metamorfosis y me ha parecido un texto bastante irrelevante.

[Óscar Segovia · Rating 4 out of 5]

el pobre Kafka estaba más perdido

[Illūnis Phosphenes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yo también pensaría en mi trabajo, mi familia y mi situación económica lo primero si me desperatara un día como insecto, Kafka entendía eso. (I am Gregorio, Gregorio is me).

[kriti · Rating 4 out of 5]

every morning i feel like gregor samsa

[Andrea Puig · Rating 5 out of 5]

La familia Samsa, en pleno, no sólo es testigo, sino protagonista de la metamorfosis; si bien Gregorio encarna la enajenación, la extrañeza y la despersonalización, sus padres y hermanas empiezan a recorrer un camino de deshumanización en el que parecen ser quienes se esconden a tientas en los recodos de la habitación. Cargada de melancolía, esta obra suscita tantos matices como las patitas incontrolables de un Gregorio que se ha perdido en el sentido del “deber”.

En "Informe para una academia" Pedro el rojo es un mono que ha sido capturado en la selva, quien, renunciando a la libertad, que de todas formas no encontrará en la sociedad, acude a la opción de hacerse "humano" como única salida. Es el hombre para él tan fácil de imitar, tan uniforme, y parece no estar más lejos que él de su pasado simiesco.