TO THE INSECT AND BACK: FROM FRANZ KAFKA’S “THE METAMORPHOSIS” TO TWO REVERSAL REPLICAS: HARUKI MURAKAMI’S “SAMSA IN LOVE” AND IAN MCEWAN’S THE COCKROACH
TO THE INSECT AND BACK: FROM FRANZ KAFKA’S “THE METAMORPHOSIS” TO TWO REVERSAL REPLICAS: HARUKI MURAKAMI’S “SAMSA IN LOVE” AND IAN MCEWAN’S THE COCKROACH

Summary/Abstract: This study tries to connect two replicas of Joseph Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” Haruki Murakami’s “Samsa in Love” and Ian McEwan’s The Cockroach to their complex inspirational source through a number of features, insisting on the significance of the Samsa name as a possible derivative of the Hinduist Samsara, viewed as sufferance, death, rebirth as reincarnation. In this respect, the two contemporary stories may be reversal sequels to Kafka’s novella. The study analyses the sources of surrealist parodic humour and tragic nonsense in these pieces of fiction, their use of names and interpersonal relationships between the characters, the dialogues.

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