From a Cockroach’s Point of View: The Metamorphosis of Perception in Kafka

Abstract

The article offers a reading of the famous tale by Kafka focused on the consequences triggered by the sudden transformation of Gregor Samsa into an insect. This event constitutes the starting point of a shift that involves phases and components of perception both of the self and of the world as well as the relations among the inner and the external world, the most elementary awareness and feelings and the most complex ones, which are affective, cognitive and related to interactions, expressed with particular emphasis by the dynamics of the spatial dimension of the story. Two discursive paths intersect above all: on one side, the traveling salesman wakes up with the/in the body of cockroach while his soul is the same as always. He will have to try to become cockroach, that is to assume its perceptions and then, slowly, its tastes, its impressions and any other animal sentiment. At the same time, the becoming of Gregorio’s family will be antiphrastic to the one experienced by him: from inept, passive parasites of their akin, as they are depicted at the beginning of the story, his family members will gradually turn into active bourgeoisies full of projects, rejecting Gregory up to eliminate him: they are the ones dehumanizing themselves, while Gregory refines his sensitivity in suffering, even to the sacrifice.