'When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect ...' So begins Franz Kafka's most famous story Die Verwandlung or Metamorphosis. Franz Kafka is one of the most intriguing writers of the twentieth century; adjective 'kafkaesque' evokes his bizarre world in which characters grapple with faceless bureaucracy, find themselves turned into insects, or starve themselves to death in the name of art. This Very Short Introduction Ritchie Robertson provides the newcomer with an up-to-date and accessible examination of this fascinating author: beginning with an examination of Kafka's life, he then goes on to discuss some of the major themes that emerge in Kafka's work, using his short story Metamorphosis as a recurring example.

The Enriched Classics series offers readers such features as: - A concise introduction that gives the reader important background information - A chronology of the author's life and work - A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context - An outline of key themes and plot points to help guide the reader's own interpretations - Detailed explanatory notes - Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work - Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction - A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience - Reader-friendly font size

作为一个以文学为使命的作家，卡夫卡应当属于当代主义文学，卡夫卡文学表面上看很传统，实质上却是具有着对于现代理性的一种颠覆性的解构功能。他的精神品质似乎更接近后现代思想家，他文学的审美品格也更像是后现代的经典。卡夫卡确实处在“现代与后现代相遇之处”，处在现代与后现代两种文化品格的交汇处。 　　卡夫卡是一个在西方文化语境中生长起来的“游牧文学”的代表。卡夫卡文学的“解构”特征，既不同于现代主义，其解构的力度远远地超出了现代主义范畴，其强劲的颠覆性，可与后现代主义相媲美；卡夫卡文学的“解构”特征，也不同于后现代主义，其解构的效应是间接地发生的。卡夫卡在文学中总是把自己作为直接的、唯一的解构对象，是一种“自我性解构”，卡夫卡文学解构的意义或许更为深远，更符合人类文化自我发展中所必需的一种内在机制。 　　《卡夫卡现象学》是一部力作，这部著作是从卡氏作品中寻觅特殊的文化意义，可以称为一部思想史研究著作。作者将卡夫卡放到西方思想文化发展的进程中来考察，发挥卡夫卡文学世界所蕴藏的文化乃至哲学意义。在这一视角中，作者对卡夫卡作品中“弱者”形象予以特别注意，为他的文化解码绘制一幅“弱者”生存图，显示出卡氏作品中突破威权的政治寓言。这部著作思路开阔，立论高远，分析细致而透辟，尤其在涉及思想史研究的一些关键问题上有精邃的见解，可称是国内卡夫卡研究的翘楚之作。

Written in 1914, The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century: the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, Kafka's nightmare has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers. This new edition is based upon the work of an international team of experts who have restored the text, the sequence of chapters, and their division to create a version that is as close as possible to the way the author left it. In his brilliant translation, Breon Mitchell masterfully reproduces the distinctive poetics of Kafka's prose, revealing a novel that is as full of energy and power as it was when it was first written.

在线阅读本书 The story of K., the unwanted Land Surveyor who is never to be admitted to the Castle nor accepted in the village, and yet cannot go home, seems to depict, like a dream from the deepest recesses of consciousness, an inexplicable truth about the nature of existence. In his introduction, Idris Parry shows that duality-to Kafka a perpetual human condition-lies at the heart of this essentially imaginative magnum opus: dualities of certainty and doubt, hope and fear, reason and nonsense, harmony and disintegration. Thus, The Castle is an unfinished novel that feels strangely complete, in which a labyrinthine world, described in simple language and absurd fantasy, reveals a profound truth. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.