ENCW 202 Spring 2022
Posted in Metamorphosis on Jan 15th, 2022
Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” describes the confusion and exhaustion a person takes on after transforming into a bug-human hybrid. Throughout this story, the main character has to adapt to his new life as an insect. He begins to have to change his routine in the way he positions himself to sleep, and he experiences physical exhaustion as […]
Posted in Metamorphosis on Jan 14th, 2022
Samantha Hunt’s “Beast” depicts the complications of married life through the use of anamorphic qualities, which highlight the topics of inner conflict, longing, desire, and infidelity. Our narrator describes her nights beside her husband as she morphs into a deer, which can be interpreted as her animalistic tendencies from actively committing adultery taking psychical shape. Deer are known to […]
Posted in Metamorphosis on Jan 13th, 2022
Shapeshifting or transformation stories can be found throughout all history and cultures. In almost all of these stories, the transformation is never just a simple one. Instead, it is used as a symbol for what is happening in the character’s life. After reading the stories “Mantis,” “Fatso,” and “Beast,” I found the symbolism of “Mantis” the most interesting. The […]
Posted in Metamorphosis on Jan 13th, 2022
The three assigned readings this week were about different kinds of fantastical transformations. Etgar Keret’s “Fatso” was about a man’s girlfriend turning into a large, hairy man every night. Samantha Hunt’s “Beast” presents a woman who becomes a deer once her husband turns off the light at night. Finally, Julia Armfield’s “Mantis” by Julia Armfield, was […]
Posted in Metamorphosis on Jan 13th, 2022
In all of the stories that we’ve read for this week, the characters’ transformations into various insects or animals moved the story by making them confront something within themselves or, ironically, revealing certain truths in their loved ones. In “The Metamorphosis,” Gregor Samsa’s transformation into a cockroach not only changes his and his family’s entire […]
Posted in Metamorphosis on Jan 13th, 2022
Transformations happen all of the time, whether it be in the clear skies that shift into thunderclouds or withered leaves that turn to dust on the ground. The readings for this week all focused on different types of physical transformations and how they affect the lives of those in the story. “Mantis” portrayed a young woman […]
Posted in Metamorphosis on Jan 13th, 2022
The three stories this week were similar but also very different. All three were tales of people who are experiencing changes that seem/are impossible. “Fatso” features a young woman who suddenly turns into a fat, hairy man at night, “Mantis” a young girl who has inherited the insect-like genes of her grandmother, and “Beast” a woman who turns into a deer at […]
Posted in Metamorphosis on Jan 13th, 2022
I have read many stories about transformation, but none hooked me so much as Julia Armfield’s short story “Mantis” from her collection Salt Slow. What struck me was the language of this story — how it weaves through mystery and foreshadowing, using as its setting both a home in which secrets are kept and a Catholic school where our narrator is just a […]
Posted in Metamorphosis on Jan 13th, 2022
In Juila Armfield’s “Mantis,” the mother of the girl keeps trying to make her pretty and beautiful. An Avon sales lady sells cosmetics to them to make them beautiful, and even the girls at the Catholic school are worried about their appearance. To me this story is about how as children we do not care much about our appearance, […]
Posted in Metamorphosis on Jan 13th, 2022
The three works “Fatso” by Etgar Keret, “Beast” by Samantha Hunt, and “Mantis” by Julia Armfield all provide parallel motifs that reward examination of the ideas of transformation, secrecy, and intimacy. In all three stories, a woman is both the protagonist and antagonist; there is internal conflict within each of them that creates the story. The internal conflict […]
Posted in Metamorphosis on Jan 13th, 2022
The process of a person transforming into something new is a tool that is always seen throughout literature. It is common to read about characters that transform into different people or animals or mythical creatures. However, I had never read anything like “Mantis” by Julia Armfield, “Beast” by Samantha Hunt, and “Fatso” by Etgar Keret. All three stories share […]
Posted in Metamorphosis on Jan 12th, 2022
This week, we read four stories which all dealt with themes of transformation and shapeshifting. “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, “Mantis” by Julia Armfield, “Fatso” by Etgar Keret, and “Beast” by Samantha Hunt. While these stories share physical transformation as their main plot element, they are all distinct from one another in their underlying themes. I read “The Metamorphosis” as […]
Posted in Metamorphosis on Jan 5th, 2022
The great novelist Vladimir Nabokov, whose novels include Lolita, Pnin, and Pale Fire, was also a literature professor and an ardent lepidopterist. In perhaps his most famous lecture, on Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” delivered while teaching at Cornell University, he states: “Beauty plus pity—that is the closest we can get to a definition of art. Where there is beauty there […]