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These two essays explore Kafka´s universe in two of his writings the canonical ´The Metamorphosis´ and the little-known ´The Burrow´. Both narratives, each with a fantastic animal as the central character, present a series of existentially blocked situations. In ´Metamorphosis´, the father-son relationship is problematic right from the start, but it is the brother-sister relation, to be specific the elder brother-younger sister relation that is crucial. Ultimately Gregor Samsa´s death is the only possible way-out of this nightmare. Similar human predicaments and psychic complexities are presented in ´The Burrow´. Possessed with the idea of a soundproof house secure from trespassers, a restless creature sweats, slogs and suffers. He spends his entire youth constructing such a burrow. There is an endless and a hopeless search for a perfect existence. This semiotic study shows that human conditions are not static but in constant movement. The book is not just for the die-hard Kafka lovers. It is meant for all the literature enthusiasts who seek the author first and foremost in his writing and not in his history, personal or collective.

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With a Ph.D from Jawaharlal Nehru University on Franz Kafka, Dr. Singh presently teaches German literature at the University of Delhi, India. She is the author of Rilke, Kafka, Manto. The Semiotics of Love, Life and Death (Harman, 2001), Tagore, Rilke, Gibran: A Comparative Study (IIAS, 2002) and Autobiography: Fact and Fiction (Aryan Books, 2009).

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