The literature borders of standard plots, narrative techniques, and the boundary of genres was broken through by modernist writers. Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” and Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” challenged the view of human reasoning for understanding the world with the use of modernism in literature. The texts by Woolf and Kafka are examples of the information about modernism by Fernald and Bru. Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” and Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” held the characteristics of modernism by manipulating the past for a belief, challenged conventions and customs as lived experiences, and questioning conventions and customs of a society.
Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” is a story that manipulated the past for a new outlook on a …show more content…
Sascha Bru suggests that modernist writers could “depict society in a state of disintegration and dehumanization.”(Bru 111), for questioning the conventions and customs of a society. Gregor’s family symbolizes the act of dehumanization of Jews that came with the conventions and customs of that time. Kafka’s text is about the alienation of Gregor from his family, but also the symbolism of how the conventions of Jews back then was the exclusion from most aspects of certain societies. Gregor did everything he could for his family, but when he needed them to take care of him they did with sympathy at first, but that was eventually replaced with disgust: “We must get rid of it… You just have to put from your mind any thought that it’s Gregor.”(Kafka 238). The use of the word “it” is used to dehumanize Gregor, but also they seem to have already alienated him from the family. Gregor’s family not only embodies the dehumanization that the society used in the conventions towards Jews, but demonstrates the cause of disintegration in Gregor in the form of alienation which symbolizes the alienation the Jewish society felt during that time. Undoubtedly, the support of Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” is an example that notes the modernistic characteristics by
Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” is a story that manipulated the past for a new outlook on a …show more content…
Sascha Bru suggests that modernist writers could “depict society in a state of disintegration and dehumanization.”(Bru 111), for questioning the conventions and customs of a society. Gregor’s family symbolizes the act of dehumanization of Jews that came with the conventions and customs of that time. Kafka’s text is about the alienation of Gregor from his family, but also the symbolism of how the conventions of Jews back then was the exclusion from most aspects of certain societies. Gregor did everything he could for his family, but when he needed them to take care of him they did with sympathy at first, but that was eventually replaced with disgust: “We must get rid of it… You just have to put from your mind any thought that it’s Gregor.”(Kafka 238). The use of the word “it” is used to dehumanize Gregor, but also they seem to have already alienated him from the family. Gregor’s family not only embodies the dehumanization that the society used in the conventions towards Jews, but demonstrates the cause of disintegration in Gregor in the form of alienation which symbolizes the alienation the Jewish society felt during that time. Undoubtedly, the support of Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” is an example that notes the modernistic characteristics by