Editions (listed alphabetically by translator or editor)

Appelbaum, Stanley, trans. and ed. [Franz Kafka:] Best Short Stories: A Dual-Language Book. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1997.

Corngold, Stanley, trans. and ed.. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. 1972; rpt. New York: Bantam Classics - Bantam Books, 1981. [the translation used by NAWME]

Freed, Donna, trans. and ed. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories: A New Translation by Franz Kafka. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1996.

Muir, Willa, and Edwin Muir, trans. Selected Short Stories of Franz Kafka. Introduction by Philip Rahv. New York: Modern Library - Random House, 1952.

Muir, Willa, and Edwin Muir, trans. "The Metamorphosis." In [Franz Kafka:] The Complete Stories. Ed. Nahum Glatzer. New York: Schocken Books, 1971.

Neugroschel, Joachim, trans. and ed. The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories by Franz Kafka. New York: Scribner - Simon and Schuster, 1995.

Pasley, Malcolm, trans. and ed. The Transformation and Other Stories: Works Published During Kafka's Lifetime by Franz Kafka. London: Penguin Books, 1992.
 

Paragraphing Table from the Various Translations
 

Applebaum	Corngold	Freed	Muir	Neugroschel	Pasley
Part 1: 1-30	Part 1: 1-30	Part 1: 1-30	Part 1: 1-30	Part 1: 1-52	Part 1: 1-30
Part 2: 1-29	Part 2: 1-29	Part 2: 1-29	Part 2: 1-29	Part 2: 1-35	Part 2: 1-29
Part 3: 1-38	Part 3: 1-38	Part 3: 1-38	Part 3: 1-38	Part 3: 1-49	Part 3: 1-38

To apply the following Notes and Questions, every fifth paragraph of each part will have to be numbered, as above (for the Corngold translation).
 

General Notes and Questions

G1. As Cervantes' Don Quixote gave English the word quixotic, so the fiction of Franz Kafka gave English and literary criticism the word Kafka-esque. (A very funny takeoff on this word is to be found in the feature film Congo, based on the novel by Michael Crichton, in the scene where the less important members of a scientific party are being interrogated by a minor African army officer after explosions at the airport and the party's theft of a truck to pursue their mission. The allusion is more to Kafka's novels, particularly The Trial and The Castle. Astonishingly, a feature film has been made of each of these novels: The Castle, starring Maximilian Schell, was released in 1968, while The Trial, directed by Orson Welles and featuring several well-known movie stars such as Anthony Perkins and Jeanne Moreau, was released in 1962.) (See the photos of Franz Kafka, Kafka's house in Prague, and the Franz Kafka monument in Prague.)

G2. The sense of strangeness and dislocation within the framework of the ordinary has a modern art analogue in the paintings of René Magritte (see Magritte's Time Transfixed on Google.com's image search, for an example; a reproduction of this painting was to be found in an earlier edition of Stokstad's Art History). In modern art and literature, a term often used about the visual artist's or writer's depiction of the strangeness of, or in, the ordinary is "defamiliarization."  How can this element also be found in many of the works illustrated in Ch. 33 ("The Development of Modernist Art: The Early 20th Century") in Gardner's Art Through the Ages, 12th edition?

G3. The instance of Franz Kafka brings up the issue of Jews in modern cultural history; which one of the Impressionist painters was Jewish (the painter is briefly discussed in the art history textbook; which one of the Impressionist painters -- also included in the art history textbook -- was notoriously Antisemitic?); which Jew was one of the pioneers of modern psychology and the use of psychology to analyze culture and history, as well as individuals?; which Jew was the pioneer of the Marxist or class-conflict analysis of politics and culture?; from your music textbook or other sources, what persons of Jewish heritage had an important role in twentieth-century music?

G4. (a) As applied to this lengthy story's title, what changes or transforms, as shown in the story? (b) As applied to the story's title, what doesn't change or doesn't transform, as shown in the story? (c) What changes into what, as shown in the story?

G5. How are all the following conflicts or oppositions manifested or treated in the story: (a) dream vs. reality; (b) rational vs. irrational; (c) the familiar or routine vs. the strange; (d) the individual or isolation vs. the community or group or bureaucracy or family or society; (e) selfishness vs. selflessness; (f) working vs. joblessness; (g) independence vs. dependence; (h) powerfulness or authority vs. powerlessness; (i) male vs. female; (j) sexuality vs. asexuality; unrepressed vs. repressed; (k) human vs. animal or nonhuman or dehumanized; (l) healthy vs. sick?

G5. How is the subject of time manifested or treated in the story?

G6. (A) How are visual art (painting, architecture) and music subjects and conveyors of symbolism in this story? (B1) How does the initial description of Gregor's insect body (1.1 [= part 1, paragraph 1]) suggest a particular architectural artifact? (B2) What painting does Gregor keep in his room, what is the subject matter of the painting, and how do Gregor, Gregor's mother, and Gregor's sister interact with regard to this painting? (B3) How does the painting gather the symbolism of romance, sex, and repression? (C) How are the basic architectural elements -- as in some paintings by Rene Magritte (e.g., Magritte's Time Transfixed) -- of window and door repeated symbolic motifs in this story? (D) What ideas are gathered symbolically around music through the recurrent subject of Gregor's sister's violin playing?

G7. How are the subjects of language and communication repeatedly manifested in the story?

G8. How is the issue of religion repeatedly manifested in the story -- as in the initial description of Gregor's insect body (1.1 [= part 1, paragraph 1]), repeated expletive symbolism (1.4, 1.6, 1.22, 1.29; 2.27), what the father attacks Gregor with (2.29, 3.1, 3.29), the number and description of the boarders (3.9-11, 3.14-15, 3.33, 3.35), or the description of Gregor's death (3.29-30) --- this last item as related to the book of Isaiah in the Bible?