Franz Kafka plays with this notion of a negative transformation, the inversion of the Transfiguration of Christ, in his magnum opus, Metamorphosis. The original German title, Die Verwandlung would translate more accurately, in a Kafkaesque style, as the ‘Transfiguration’ or even the ‘Transubstantiation’, representing Kafka’s underlying religious innuendoes. Gregor Samsa (a pseudonym for Kafka himself) awakes one morning into the worst nightmare of his life. He no longer is a human, but instead a bed bug, a pest left to burden his family. Kafka inverts the greatest story of Christianity to prove how menial the whole idea of The Ascension is. The ironic nature of this tale is evident in Samsa reaction to his transformation into a multi-legged
