Expressionism, Surrealism, Existentialism, and Freudianism in Franz Kafka

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Expressionism, Surrealism, Existentialism, and
Freudianism in Franz Kafkas The Metamorphosis
By Hannah Bondy, Christina Cho, Hannah No, and
Deep Seal
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Expressionism
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What feelings do you get from this painting?
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• In an entry in his literary diary on 22 January,
  1892Munch described the painting as 22 January,
  1892
• "I was walking along the road with two friends.
  The sun was setting. I felt a breath of
  melancholy - Suddenly the sky turned blood-red.
  I stopped, and leaned against the railing,
  deathly tired - looking out across the flaming
  clouds that hung like blood and a sword over the
  blue-black fjord and town. My friends walked on
  - I stood there, trembling with fear. And I
  sensed a great, infinite scream pass through
  nature."

• Fear? Paranoia? Disturbance? Disgust?
• This painting shows the expressionist movement
  in art

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What is Expressionism?
Expressionism a technique of distorting objects
and events in order to represent them as they are
perceived by a character in a literary work 1
- it relies on how one perceives it -
adding an abstract aspect to a particular piece
of literature to add depth to the story and the
emotions conveyed
The Metamorphosis expressionism the
transformation of Gregor Samsa into an enormous
bug.
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Images of the Metamorphosis
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The Metamorphosis Was it merely a Physical
Change?
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The Distortion of Reality

• A vital trait of Expressionism is the distortion
  of reality.
• Gregors metamorphosis was a deformation of his
  identity as a human, which was his reality.
• The entire aspect of a human transforming into a
  bug is extremely abstract, and to fathom Gregors
  feelings, attaching an emotional perception to
  the text is extremely vital.

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The Clash between Authority and the Individual

• The conflict between the individual and
  authority also forms a key aspect of
  Expressionism.
• Gregor and Kafka had similar life experiences

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Surrealism
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The Background

• Subsequent to Dadaism and basing on the theories
  of Sigmund Freud
• Surrealism started in France in the 1920s.

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The Philosophy

• This was the style of literature and art that
  visualized sub-consciousness and fantasy.
• These visions were inspired from dreams and
  nightmares.
• Feature elements of surprise and juxtaposition of
  images that would usually not go together. (non
  sequitur)

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The Metamorphosis Kafka

• The Metamorphosis is a reflection upon Franz
  Kafkas life. His father was the one who would
  make him feel as if he was making something out
  of himself. Although his passion was in
  journalism, his father wanted him to become a
  lawyer with a wide range of job possibilities and
  financial benefits. Kafka felt trapped and lived
  in guilt for continuing his work as a journalist
  until his death.

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The Metamorphosis

• Gregor was the one who supported his family as a
  reluctant traveling salesman.
• After the metamorphosis His parents did not
  work, and his sister, Grete had to sacrifice her
  studies to support the family.
• Isolation Under large furniture he hid and his
  true human identity was buried inside the shell
  of a bug. Even his family could not bear to face
  him.

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• Gregors father and the apples thrown, one
  penetrated. Kafkas conflict with his father and
  the insults he had to deal with he felt as
  vulnerable and worthless as Gregor.
• The image of a person turning into a bug
  (possibly a cockroach) is a surreal image of
  isolationism, vulnerability, and inferiority.

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Existentialism
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• Believes that everyone is responsible to
  determine their own lifes purpose and meaning.
• A person who tries to find meaning in his or her
  life by accepting existence is an existentialist.
  
• Existentialists make decisions based on things
  that have meaning to them and only them, ignoring
  the rational
• Meaning is not given to humans by nature, but it
  is actually created by the individual, by their
  actions and interpretations.

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How existentialism relates to Franz Kafkas
novella The Metamorphosis
Gregor wakes up one morning and realizes that he
turned into a bug. What Franz Kafka was
symbolizing in this situation is that a
individual makes him/herself a certain way by how
they think and believe about themselves. Gregor
probably felt like a bug because he felt that his
life was insignificant and he was probably in the
nadir of his lifetime, and THAT probably made him
into a bug.
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Freudianism
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Rationality. -Freud's model of the mind
drastically reduced the scope and power of
reason. In Freud's view, reasoning occurs in the
conscious mind, but this is only a small part of
the whole. -The mind also contains the hidden,
irrational elements, which lie outside of
conscious control, drive behaviour, and motivate
conscious activities. -These structures call
into question humans' ability to act purely on
the basis of reason, since lurking motives are
also always at play.
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• Transparency of Self.
• Another common assumption in pre-Freudian
  philosophy was that people have immediate and
  unproblematic access to themselves.
• Emblematic of this position is René Descartes' I
  think, therefore I am".
• - central aspects of a person remain radically
  inaccessible to the conscious mind (without the
  aid of psychotherapy), which undermines the once
  unquestionable status of first-person knowledge.

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Freudianism in the Metamorphosis

• According to Freuds ideas, Gregors turning into
  a giant bug was a result of his mind, but he did
  not know it.

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Works Cited

• Expressionism
• 1 www.dictionary.com

Freudianism http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_
Freud
Surrealism www.newhorizonsgallery.com/terms.htm h
ttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka http//en.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism