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Kafka's Metamorphosis
The Metamorphosis was written in the early 19th century in the years leading up to the first World War. Throughout the 1800s, there was a phenomenon occurring in Europe stemming from innovations in the production of printing presses. The rotary press, specifically, increased the volume at which printed texts could be published and distributed to the public. This caused a shift in reading demographics tremendously. Prior to the mass amounts print that became available during the 19th century, literature was readily available to much narrower audience. Increasing access to texts and print saw a decline in illiteracy rates within Europe; for example, by the 1880s only 1.54 percent of enlisted German soldiers were illiterate with that number dropping to 0.05 percent by the 1900s2.
The shift in reading culture that occurred during the 19th century caused a dramatic change in reading habits and perceptions of reading among the general public. With increased accessibility to books, magazines, and newspapers, the public began to not only read more but also to realize the importance of literary education. As "the general rate of literacy rose rapidly from 25 percent in 1800 to 75 percent in 1870, and to 90 percent by 1900"1, the number of lower and middle class readers increased, which created more demand for literature to be printed thus creating more readers. A larger reader-base also lowered the cost of manufacturing texts, making the literary medium even more accessible to the public at large.
Kafka's Metamorphosis was first published in Die Weißen Blätter, a german journal that spawned from the literary revolution of the 1800s. Along with novels, newspapers and journals saw a massive spike in popularity and production. Newspaper advertisements changed drastically over the course of the 19th century such that "illustrations began to creep into advertisements, so that by the 1890s they had became far more complex spectacles combining textual and visual elements"4. Of particular note, the readership of newspapers among women both increased and became especially important for publishers. Women were the primary shoppers among most families, and the newspaper allowed them to browse from the comfort of their own homes. Moreover, the trends of increased readership among women "marked the end of the days when it was the male householder's role to read the paper and update the members of his household on the latest news"4. Through the women suffrage movement occurring concurrently with a proliferation of female readers, women took up a more informed and confident role in the household4.
However, the proliferation of newspapers and advertisements begged the question of whether the quality of literature was being sacrificed for the quantity with which it was being produced. The influence of this new form of media on society was undeniable, and contemporary German writers, such as Karl Jaspers, became concerned with the sacrifice of literary complexity in texts for mass appeal: "'In order to make sales, the instinct of millions must be gratified: the upshot of sensationalism, dullness of the mind, avoiding making demands on the reader is a situation where everything is trivialized and brutalized'"4. The transition towards a industrial society primarily concerned with mass production and mass consumption can be seen in some aspects of The Metamorphosis. Gregor is constantly ruminating and fixating on his ability to earn money to support his family, and his superiors are depicted as strictly focused on squeezing the most work possible out of him. In a world becoming more and more concerned with the masses instead of individuals, one can see understand why Kafka's works address feelings of isolation and alienation. While Kafka wanted to explore the depths of his literary prowess through writing and introspection, the society around him demanded he become a cog in the wheel. Instead of pursuing a writing career, he lived the life of a pencil pusher working in an insurance office.
The Metamorphosis was published in the German literary magazine "Die Weißen Blätter in 1915, which is relatively modern compared to most other works in this course. By this time, literacy was no longer exclusive to the upper class/clergy or men, with literacy rates in Germany surpassing 90% by 1900[1] and being almost 100% by the time of The Metamorphosis' publication[2]. To naturally mirror this trend, the number of publications, whether newspapers, journals, magazines, or pulp novels rapidly grew to satiate the demand from their dramatically expanded audiences. Put more concretely, "In the span of one hundred years there occurred a 19-fold increase in the number of magazines and newspapers, from 371 in 1826 to 7,303 in 1930"[4], with other types of print media experiencing similarly large expansions. The most influential and popular publications of the day grew to have extremely large (for the time, at least) readerships that had previously not been possible, with the weekly magazine Die Gartenlaube for example reaching over 400,000 weekly readers by the 1870's[1].
Along with the growth of the general literate public, there were similar increases in the publication and reading of specialized media created for and marketed towards a specific sector of society:
"Historically, there was no clear distinction between the printer, publisher, and bookseller. In the nineteenth century, this changed as publishing roles started to become more specialized. Around the mid 1820’s, booksellers started to create their own associations separate from the printer’s guilds. The publisher was no longer just a position that was passed down the family tree; it was now open to outsiders as well since the guilds were no longer in control. A guild is an organized group of people who have joined together because they share the same job or interest. Publishers no longer needed a background in printing. Instead they needed to be creative, independent, and adventurous entrepreneurs. They now had to be knowledgeable about the market in order to make decisions that fit the demand. Their role was to make decisions about price, paper quality, format, advertising, and distribution. It was also at this time that publishers started to develop their own niches. Karl Baedeker, for instance published guidebooks. This more specialized way of publishing replaced what came before it and is similar to what we still see today. By disrupting the publishing industry we now have publishers who are experts in their areas."[5] (Pages 93-94)
Changing attitudes towards and purposes for publication were also influenced by the development of new not necessarily textual forms of media such as the gramophone, film, and the typewriter. These technologies eliminated print media's monopoly on the representation of information and forced publications to seek new strategies to create and maintain their readership[6].
Both explicit images of reading that appear in Kafka's Metamorphosis depict the reading of newspapers/magazines by Gregor or his family. This is consistent with the explosion of newspaper/print media that had happened prior to The Metamorphosis's publication (notably in a literary journal) as explained prior. Showing the range of the new media that was circulating, Gregor's father is often shown reading a newspaper, a very practical and purposeful publication, while to contrast it is noted that Gregor feels some infatuation towards a picture he had cut out and framed from a magazine (a much less practical publication mostly created for pure enjoyment). Gregor's father is characterized as a very pragmatic and somewhat selfish, being disappointed in Gregor's newfound inability to work or provide for the family as he had been doing prior to the novella's main story. Gregor's fixation on the magazine cutout, in comparison, seems fairly representative of his lost utility to the family. Moreover these images show the extent to which these forms of media had spread throughout society at the time/place Kafka depicts it. Both newspapers and magazines are both accepted as commonplace and have enough reach to appear in a fairly average working-class household such as the Samsas. It is notable as well that the women in the Samsa family also have access to and read the newspapers (and assumably the magazines as well), showing them to be primary consumers of this media as well. This confirms trends noted prior in secondary sources indicating that the intended audiences of newspapers and magazines had expanded into both of the genders as well as a generally larger slice of society.
"Above the table, on which an unpacked collection of sample cloth goods was spread out (Samsa was a traveling salesman) hung the picture which he had cut out of an il-lustrated magazine a little while ago and set in a pretty gilt frame. It was a picture of a woman with a fur hat and a fur boa. She sat erect there, lifting up in the direction of the viewer a solid fur muff into which her entire forearm dis-appeared.Gregor’s glance then turned to the window."7 (Page 3)
"In the living room, as Gregor saw through the crack in the door, the gas was lit, but where on other occasions at this time of day the father was accustomed to read the afternoon newspaper in a loud voice to his mother and sometimes also to his sister, at the moment not a sound was audible. Now, perhaps this reading aloud, about which his sister always spoken and written to him, had recently fallen out of their general routine."7 (Page 28)
"On this very evening (Gregor didn’t remember hear-ing the violin all through this period) it sounded from the kitchen. The lodgers had already ended their night meal, the middle one had pulled out a newspaper and had given each of the other two a page, and they were now leaning back, reading and smoking."7 (Page 62)
1. Aselmeyer, Norman. 2016. “The Lazy Reader: Labor, Books, and Disease in Nineteenth-Century Germany.” Literature and Medicine 34 (2): 440–67. https://doi.org/10.1353/lm.2016.0021.
2. Twarog, Sophia. "Heights and Living Standards in Germany, 1850-1939: The Case of Wurttemberg." Health and Welfare during Industrialization, January 1997, 285-330. http://www.nber.org/chapters/c7434.pdf.
3. “Europe before 1914.” n.d. The British Library. Accessed May 13, 2018. https://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/europe-before-1914.
4. Führer, K., and C. Ross. 2006. Mass Media, Culture and Society in Twentieth-Century Germany. Springer.
5. Adams, Alyssa et al. History of the Book: Disrupting Society from Tablet to Tablet. Monmouth, OR: Western Oregon University, 2015.
6. Whitney, Tyler. "Spaces of the Ear: Literature, Media, and the Science of Sound, 1870-1930." Master's thesis, Columbia University, 2013.
7. Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. New York: Bantam Books, 1986.