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From Humans to Animals: The Embodiment of the Alienation Theory in Kafka’s Metamorphosis

Author(s)

Lanxin Li*

Affiliation(s)

University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom *Corresponding author

Abstract

The turn of the 20th century witnessed tremendous changes in western social and spiritual life. With the rapid expansion of capitalism, the life of the proletariat is oppressed. Modernist literature gradually developed under this background. Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis (1915) is a representative work of European modernist literature in the early 20th century. By describing the story of the alienation of small people from the bottom of society into animals, the writer fully exposes the oppression of ordinary people by capitalism. Through describing the alienation of humans and animals to explore the living conditions of the general public in a capitalist society.Combining the alienation theory, this study deeply analyzes the alienation phenomenon of the protagonist Gregor from three dimensions, including man’s relation to his productive activity, self-estrangement, and his fellow men. Through this analysis, a dialectical understanding and in-depth analysis of the phenomenon of humans alienating into animals is carried out.This study provides new research perspectives about the alienation of humans into animals. Readers can also have a new understanding of alienation in modernist literary works in the early 20th century.

Keywords

Alienation Theory; Metamorphosis; Alienation; Capitalism; Animals

References

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