Underground Men: Die Verwandlung (II)

Abstract

The previous chapter stressed the realism of Die Verwandlung from the second sentence on, and the nexus of social psychological and latently existential perspectives grouped around the ‘poor folk’ theme. It is now time to address the blatant unrealism of Die Verwandlung, and to examine the proposition that Kafka’s insect derives in some significant way from Dostoyevsky. The discussion now moves on, to Notes from Underground and to other works in which the Dostoyevskian Underground finds cogent expression. It is, of course, the Underground Man who, in Part I of the Notes, declares:

I should like to tell you now, whether you want to hear it or not, why I couldn’t even make an insect of myself. I tell you solemnly that I have wanted to make an insect of myself many times. But I couldn’t even succeed in that. I swear to you that to think too much is a disease, a real, actual disease.¹

Meine Gefängniszelle — meine Festung.

[H 421]