Deb Olin Unferth on The Metamorphosis: Cockroach or Beetle?

Deb Olin Unferth's five films on Kafka are coming out now, with the audio series to follow. Watch the first ones and hear when the rest is ready at https://rebindclassics.com/yt/kafka Is Gregor Samsa a cockroach or a beetle? Kafka would not say, and when his publisher wanted to draw the creature on the cover he answered, "Anything but that." Film 2 of 5 with Deb Olin Unferth on Kafka: The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony and A Hunger Artist. Film 2 opens The Metamorphosis. Before the first page, Unferth on the one thing everyone already knows about the story and why it does not count as a spoiler, and on the words Kafka chose for what Gregor has become: "a gigantic insect" to Willa and Edwin Muir, "a horrible vermin" to David Wyllie, whose translation this series reads. Why the shifting image of the creature drives the whole story, and why Kafka wanted it kept blurry. Also: written in three weeks, practically autobiography, and read aloud to friends who could not stop laughing. 0:00 A man wakes up as a bug 0:09 Why that is not a spoiler 0:36 His most famous story 0:48 Kafka wrote in German, in a city that spoke Czech 1:14 A gigantic insect, or a horrible vermin 1:55 Cockroach or beetle? 2:19 Kafka wanted the ambiguity: anything but that 2:35 The image that drives the whole story 3:04 A man turns into an insect. Now what? 3:12 Written in three weeks, practically autobiography 3:34 His friends couldn't stop laughing 3:57 Time to start reading Deb Olin Unferth is the author of six books, two novels, two collections of stories, a graphic novel and a memoir, and has written for Harper's, The Paris Review and The New York Times. She is a professor of creative writing and literature at the University of Texas at Austin and the director of PEN City Writers, a creative writing program at a maximum security prison in South Texas. The Metamorphosis was published in 1915. The series reads David Wyllie's translation. Rebind Classics is a library of great books read in company. For every book, we ask a reader who has lived with it for years, a novelist, a scholar, a philosopher, to talk you through it, start to finish: films, an audio series, and essays on where to start and what to read next. The first films are free here on YouTube. Everything is at https://rebindclassics.com/yt Instagram:   / rebindclassics   Questions or press: support@rebindclassics.com. We read everything. Made by Rebind Publishing. Everything we publish is made by people and credited to them. #Kafka #TheMetamorphosis #FranzKafka #DebOlinUnferth #RebindClassics