Ungeheueres Ungeziefer in Kafka's "Die Verwandlung"

Abstract

In the very first sentence of Die Verwandlung, Kafka, with characteristic conciseness, denotes the creature into which Gregor Samsa has changed: Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Traiumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem Ungeziefer verwandelt. Yet it is surprising that many American and English interpreters and critics, supposedly starting from Kafka's two quite unambiguous, though highly connotative German words, ungeheueren Ungeziefer, and not necessarily insensitive to the fineness of Kafka's symbolism in general, should offer a variety of vitiating interpretations precisely in the case of this pregnant and critical symbol. The transformed Gregor Samsa is regularly denoted in English as insect' or vermin.2 As to the former, it is relevant to note that German has a perfectly good word for insect; it is Insekt, and significantly, Kafka has not used it in Die Verwandlung.' Insekt is too cold a word, too scientific, and incapable of bearing the negative, hence unpleasant connotation inherent in Ungeziefer. We should hardly expect Kafka, master of the literary symbol, to deprive himself of the basic symbolic content of his story by the use of a sterile symbol. English insect likewise lacks the emotional impact, the dis-