Franz Kafka | The Metamorphosis (part 2) | Existentialist Philosophy & Literature

Рет қаралды 28,117

9 жыл бұрын

Request personal videos on Cameo - www.cameo.com/gregorybsadler
Get Kafka's Complete Stories - amzn.to/3oefwss
Support my work here - / sadler or www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM
Philosophy tutorials - reasonio.wordpress.com/tutori...
Take classes with me - reasonio.teachable.com/
In this video, I discuss the central theme, characters, and plot of Franz Kafka's classic existentialist short story, The Metamorphosis.
In this video, I focus particularly on the theme of alienation as depicted in the short story -- specifically alienation of Gregor and his family in the social and economic realms, the alienation that occurs between Gregor and his family, and the alienation experienced of Gregor from his own self.
The main character, Gregor Samsa, is revealed as experiencing alienation particularly associated with conditions of modern existence, in each of these areas of his life. All of these become more acute after his transformation into a monstrous insect.
0:04 -- Introduction and general themes
17:19 -- Alienation in the Economic and Social Spheres
30:38 -- Alienation in the dynamics of the family Samsa
44:51 -- Alienation of Gregor from himself
1:01:48 -- Parting thoughts
If you'd like to support my work producing videos like this, become a Patreon supporter! Here's the link to find out more - including the rewards I offer backers: / sadler
You can also make a direct contribution to help fund my ongoing educational projects, by clicking here: www.paypal.me/ReasonIO
If you're interested in philosophy tutorial sessions with me - especially on Kafka's thought and works - click here: reasonio.wordpress.com/tutori...
You can find a translation of Franz Kafkas Complete Stories here - amzn.to/3oefwss
My videos are used by students, lifelong learners, other professors, and professionals to learn more about topics, texts, and thinkers in philosophy, religious studies, literature, social-political theory, critical thinking, and communications. These include college and university classes, British A-levels preparation, and Indian civil service (IAS) examination preparation
#Kafka #Philosophy #Existentialism #Literature #Modernism #Alienation #Guilt #Anxiety #Fantasy #Metamorphosis
(Amazon links are associate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

Пікірлер: 58

@shaikhahamed694 9 жыл бұрын

I very much loved your analysis of Kafka's novel. I've spend my weekend watching this video and part one back and forth. And it occur my mind, the possibility of one being alienated due to mental illness . People suffer from depression for instance they show change in interest regarding food, activities, even they way the see the world and how those close to them see them. They don't mind spending days in bed, not taking a shower or having a decent meal not show any interest in doing things they were once very fond of. This is defiantly an alienation as you defined it. Thanks again for the great info. I very much enjoyed it.

@GregoryBSadler 9 жыл бұрын

the second video on this short work -- focusing specifically on the theme of alienation in the text

@viktoriastift2965 9 жыл бұрын

I think the alienation of Gregor has already happened when the novel starts. That process results in turning into a bug and realizing it. Maybe the everyday situation he was in alienated him a lot more than he was aware of but suddenly came up from his subconscious and became a fact first for his family and surroundings and then slowly for himself as well. After that begins the other part of alienation on a "conscious level", from his family, from his body, from himself. It is a great novel, so many aspects, so many explanations.

@GregoryBSadler 9 жыл бұрын

Viktoria Stift Yes, alienation is not an on-off thing like a light switch. Once can be more or less alienated, as well as alienated in multiple manners. One can also talk of it being consciously noted or only implicit

@JCloyd-ys1fm 7 жыл бұрын

Good reading. For me, Kafka wrote Gregor's death quite poignantly. It wasn't too dramatic, but it does make you feel something. I read Metamorphosis twice before and again before viewing your lectures on Kafka, and Gregor's death still clutches at me. Powerful stuff. Almost bringing me to tears.

@GregoryBSadler 7 жыл бұрын

Glad you found the video useful!

@kjmsax1 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Professor! I just read this book this morning and found your lecture on KZfaq. Your analysis really shed light on the subtle details of Mr. Kafka’s book that I would have otherwise overlooked. I felt like I was in college again (as a 50 something y.o.) I will read the other books in your video library and watch your lectures. Liked & subscribed !

@GregoryBSadler 2 жыл бұрын

Glad you found it useful!

@user-wp8te3eb9y 7 жыл бұрын

Great explanation and point of view! opened my perspective on this book, and about being alienated from oneself.

@GregoryBSadler 7 жыл бұрын

Glad it was useful for you

@ouzaamout 7 жыл бұрын

Gregory !! this is the best channel on youtube from my point of view. I really hope that you continue, and I wish you the best of luck out there. Thank you so much for your channel's rich content.

@GregoryBSadler 7 жыл бұрын

Glad to read that you enjoy it - and I've got plans to keep turning out about 250-300 new videos each coming year! If you'd like to help support my ongoing work, check out my Patreon page: www.patreon.com/sadler

@matejavrska4795 3 жыл бұрын

Very minute and clear analysis. Thank you very much!

@thetellerofstories 9 жыл бұрын

At around 49:40 , you said that his taste in music did not change, but in the story when gregor is talking about his dream of sending his sister to conservatoire it is narrated "unlike him she loved music". So at the end, when his sister is playing music and he is drawn to it , maybe that's why he thinks to himself that he is such an animal to be drawn to it. (unlike the past , when he was a human)

@GregoryBSadler 9 жыл бұрын

Could be

@robert9461 6 жыл бұрын

mrperfectprashant I think that the fact that he appreciates the music is one reason why he feels he is still a human being. An animal wouldn’t appreciate the beauty of music but Gregor does and since he does, he must be still human on the inside. I know this posts was from three years ago but I am just watching it now and I’m enjoying it very much. I bought a copy of Kafka’s short stories for my grown son and and the analysis helps me to discuss the story w him. Thanks very much for posting.

@deborahshayne1387 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks a lot for your fascinating analysis.

@GregoryBSadler 4 жыл бұрын

You're welcome!

@HalTuberman 9 жыл бұрын

Yay! (applause, applause, applause) I very much enjoyed both videos as a fan of both The Metamorphosis and philosophy. Thanks, Dr. Sadler.

@GregoryBSadler 9 жыл бұрын

You're welcome!

@Scary5 4 жыл бұрын

Alienation is when a normal person start seeing something which cannot be explained. Cuz he/she thinks that the world might call him crazy. Eg. Opening of pineal gland. We call it metamorphosis. Getting transformed into something new. Feeling alienated. It's like transferring every software from core 2 duo to i5 computer. Feeling are still the same but the brain started functioning from core2duo to i5. Now, a core2duo can never understand the brain of i5 and because i5 brains are very rare, core2duo minds thinks that there is no such things as i5. And metamorphosis talk about the process of transferring files from core2duo to i5. It even talk about the side effects it creates for a person to switch from core2 duo to i5. Kafka is talking about the stage 3 of metamorphosis. Stage 1- person sees the matrix. Stage 2- person does everything to avoid it. Stage 3- person gets stuck between his feelings and outer world. He disconnects himself from outer world because he has that ill mind. He is still carrying that nasty body in which he doesn't feel comfortable anymore. It's not like he woke up someday and found himself as bug. But hes trying to explain that his conscious soul sees his body as a bug. the characters in this book gives an important message to the reader more than Kafka. Every character is a thought of Kafka mind. A person with ADHD will understand every characters role. A sociopath can understand Kafka well. And a person with a bug body will understand the whole metamorphosis. By the way , you did a great job decoding it, Sir.

@GregoryBSadler 4 жыл бұрын

That can be one kind of alienation. Seeing something other's don't see is definitely not the only kind

@chazhogue2945 6 жыл бұрын

nicely done. thanks.

@GregoryBSadler 6 жыл бұрын

You're welcome!

@kansascityraver 6 жыл бұрын

This story sounds amazing, I can't wait to read it.

@GregoryBSadler 6 жыл бұрын

It is well worth the read

@kansascityraver 6 жыл бұрын

Found a link to it, I am going to read it tonight. www.gutenberg.org/files/5200/5200-h/5200-h.htm

@DaniloInderWildi 3 жыл бұрын

@@kansascityraver Have you read it in the meanwhile?

@deborahshayne1387 4 жыл бұрын

I am out there and I do appreciate what YOU are doing. (Alienation discussion).

@GregoryBSadler 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

@im7401 8 жыл бұрын

Very Good Thank You

@GregoryBSadler 8 жыл бұрын

+Ian O Sullivan You're welcome

@maleceb5903 2 жыл бұрын

the moment you started mentioning alienation I immediately was able to put into words how I have been feeling every since my break up. Alienated. Maybe because in change we do not recognise a piece of ourselves, breaking one part while still having the other is very conflicting. So when you mentioned "or the other way around, finding out someone you thought loved you but instead didnt" yes. Simply yes. Also Id love to ask if you think there is any analogy in metamorphosis por childcarer and family dynamics. I felt it was an amazing way to show how a caretaker child feels once they say no to no longer taking care of the family, seeing how they could infact take care of their own, but now because he no longer provides he is this horrible vermin, they see him as one and he in no moment goes through a realisation moment: he just is. Maybe because he feels that way too, when your whole family makes you feel horrible and shuns you when you no longer provide

@GregoryBSadler 2 жыл бұрын

Glad the video was useful for you

@theamici 9 жыл бұрын

Like the follow-up x)

@GregoryBSadler 9 жыл бұрын

Glad to read it

@fedefloresprof 8 жыл бұрын

Hi, in wich filosofers you base your fundamentation about the things you says on the videos?? Deleuze? Sartre? greetins from argentina!

@GregoryBSadler 8 жыл бұрын

I base it on reading Kafka's text. I've read both Sartre and Deleuze, but why, if my goal is to understand something by Kafka, would I want to bring their thought in as a substitute for actually engaging Kafka?

@nopants3560 Жыл бұрын

It says something about the quality of this short story , when a lecture about it takes longer than the actual read

@GregoryBSadler Жыл бұрын

There's a lot to delve into

@emanelian2330 7 жыл бұрын

This helped alot with my Disseratation! thanks alot, is there any kind of citation that i can use for i have paraphrased some of your words :) ? Thanks in advance.

@GregoryBSadler 7 жыл бұрын

I think the various citation methods have sections on online resources - so you'll want to see what they say

@emanelian2330 7 жыл бұрын

i have found a method using APA citation for how to cite a KZfaq Video but thank you so much anyway :)!

@-diogenesthecynic- 5 жыл бұрын

It’s interesting how there’s three transformations in this story, with the first metamorphosis of Gregor as monster, then the father from elderly man to productive worker and then the development of the sister from dependent teenager to woman.

@GregoryBSadler 5 жыл бұрын

Indeed

@7grams 8 жыл бұрын

Firstly, thank you for posting these videos Dr Sadler. At 7:27 you cite 'I' and 'Me' remarks to Bachtein? Please could I have the correct spelling of his name, and if you have time the text you're referring to? Many thanks ~ Rakesh

@GregoryBSadler 8 жыл бұрын

+Rakesh Parmar Bakhtin -- and that's a theme you'll find in a number of his works

@7grams 8 жыл бұрын

+Gregory B. Sadler thank you!

@budcat7 9 жыл бұрын

Gregor's role has reversed with his family, but only his sister can even bring herself to care and eventually out of self preservation she gives in to the darker side. There are no winners here. It is sacrificing the lamb but without appeasing God, appeasing something else.

@GregoryBSadler 9 жыл бұрын

budcat7 I suppose it depends on what you mean by "winners".

@budcat7 9 жыл бұрын

Gregory B. Sadler I suppose there are really "winners" because the whole incident prompts Gregor's family to get their act together and that in a sense is a positive thing...for them. At what price though? Gregor's life. It seems very similar to what can be identified as co-dependency and counter dependency in a dysfunctional family. Gregor is the adult child of a dysfunctional family, he never learns to become an adult because he is stuck in his family unit paradigm. He cannot advocate or set boundaries for himself because he is still looking for the approval of his family instead of being self differentiated. This story I think is even more pertinent today as the level of family dysfunction in the family unit is more prevalent than ever. Could it be that Kafka predicted things to come from extrapolating the algorithm from the nascent post industrial world? I think so since it seems demonstrable in our extant social structure. Maybe the sacrifice of Gregor was to appease the gods of the post industrial urban society and the dysfunction it creates either intended or unintended or both and frees his family from it's dysfunction in order for them to grow as individuals. Ultimately, it is Gregor's own fault for not being able to break free from the emotional prison he created for himself and becoming a self differentiated individual.

@ireneshaw3367 4 жыл бұрын

Wonderful lecture!Finally I get it. Irene Shaw;Canada 2020

@GregoryBSadler 4 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it

@georgebejashvili8337 9 жыл бұрын

It is still hard for me to understand what the author wanted to tell us by this story, could anyone give me an example of so called alienation? Thank you

@georgebejashvili8337 9 жыл бұрын

I know the term alienation, but i would like to know why did it happen and in what sense does so called kafka's alienation exists in our society? Could you please give me an exaple? Thank you

@reasoniocritthinking 9 жыл бұрын

George Bejashvili I did quite a bit of that in the video, and distinguished three different main areas of alienation. Here's one example: Gregor is alienated from his family by his transformation -- they come to treat him as something other (i.e. alien) than who he was.

@georgebejashvili8337 9 жыл бұрын

Critical Thinking, Logic, and Argumentation thank you!

@reasoniocritthinking 9 жыл бұрын

George Bejashvili Oops, responded from the wrong channel -- I have to toggle back and forth from one to the other