Metamorphosis

One of the authors we studied in class was Franz Kafka, born in 1883, in the city of Prague. Kafka grew up in an upper middle class Jewish family and is renowned for many of his literary works published after his death. One of the most popular short stories of his was, “The Metamorphosis” which was published in 1915. In this story focuses on a travelling salesman, Gregor Samsa, who awakes to find himself transformed into a monstrous bug. The entire story takes place Gregor’s apartment and attempts to address an absurd event where Gregor’s transformation is never explained and goes into detail on how he begins to deal with this drastic change.

While researching Kafka’s legacy, I came upon another Prague modernist by the name of David Cerny. Below is a video that shows one of his works that is a sculpture of Kafka’s head. It is mechanized to shift and transform – Not into a monstrous insect like Gregor Samsa. As a tribute to Gregor and Kafka’s work, on the sidewalk around the base of the sculpture is the outline of a beetle.