A Comparison of Franz Kafka's »The Metamorphosis« and Kôbô Abe's »The Crime of S. Karma«

Many comparisons have been made between them, known for their existentialist and sometimes expressionist style of writing. In this work I will look behind their creative writing process and find the similarities in their lives that could have affected their choice of themes and motives. I believe that both, having lived through the changing times of the 20th century, such as the two World Wars, have had trouble fitting into the modern world. Through their work and the problem of their identity and their problems of identifying with the changes in world around them is noticeable. I will concentrate on the analysis of Kafka's short stories, »The Metamorphosis« and Kôbô Abe's »The Crime of S. Karma«. Through the analysis, I will focus on the characteristics of their writing that appear in both of these works, and associate them with their lives and the happenings in the world at that time. One of the main themes of the two chosen works is the metamorphosis that the two main characters go through. The decision of the authors for choosing this exact phenomenon might be different, but the way they use it to portray the inner state of their main characters shows connections between them. Thus I will concentrate on analysing this one motive especially, because I consider that by understanding the cause for the metamorphosis' of the main characters we will get to understand the authors and their relationship towards modern society as well.