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Metamorphoses

In Search of Franz Kafka

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Metamorphoses

By: Karolina Watroba
Narrated by: Deborah Balm
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About this listen

'A high-spirited, richly informed, and original portrait, a cross between biography, literary analysis and a study in modern canonisation: Karolina Watroba is an inspired guide and her book a pleasure to read.' Marina Warner

In 2024, exactly one hundred years after his death at the age of 40, readers and listeners all over the world will reach for the works of Franz Kafka. Many of them will want to learn more about the enigmatic man behind the classic books filled with mysterious courts and monstrous insects. Who, exactly, was Franz Kafka

Karolina Watroba, the first Germanist ever elected as a Fellow of Oxford's All Souls College, will tell Kafka's story beyond the boundaries of language, time and space, travelling from the Prague of Kafka's birth through the work of contemporary writers in East Asia, whose award-winning novels are in part homages to the great man himself.

Metamorphoses is a non-chronological journey through Kafka's life, drawing together literary scholarship with the responses of his readers and listeners through time. It is a both an exploration of Kafka's life and an exciting new way of approaching literary history.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 Karolina Watroba (P)2024 Profile Books Ltd
Art & Literature Authors Essays

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Most relevant
An excellent book and performance of the text. I found the links to South Korea most interesting. The method is to foreground readers - mention is made of professional readers such as Nabokov - but Christopher Plummer reading of Metamorphosis as Nabokov is not referenced. The reading by Deleuze is not mentioned - as a reader Deleuze transforms the meaning of the Kafkaesque dramatically. It’s a pity a PDF of references was not included.

One interesting example of transformation I expected to see was David Garrents Lady Into Fox’ written in the 1920s.

A pleasure to read. Highly recommended.


The Afterlife of Franz Kafka

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Even though I have read both the Trial and the Castle, I found this book to be very esoteric. It is very much a book for the scholar deeply immersed in Literary theory.

Esoteric

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