Intrapersonalna komunikacija božanske i životinjske duše: Kafkin kukac u 21. stoljeću
Intrapersonal Communication of Divine Soul and Animal Soul: Kafka’s Beetle in the 21st Century

Summary/Abstract: In Kafka’s prose, animal characters are allegorical and symbolic representations of people, their intellectual and emotional aspects. Kafka’s texts reflect the Judeo-Christian view of man as composed of soul and body, with animals symbolically representing the aspect of the body in a communicative relationship. Jewish theosophy identifies the body with the animal soul (nefeš habehamit), and the human soul with the divine soul (nefeš haelokit). The communicative relationships of anthropomorphized animals in Kafka’s literature can be interpreted: a) as metaphorical aspects of intrapersonal communication between the divine and animal souls in the system of Jewish theosophy, b) on a literal interpretive level of human-animal communication with the imperative of environmental protection, c) as postcolonial metaphors for relations between cultures. The paper contains a qualitative content analysis and a quantitative analysis of Kafka’s prose texts dealing with human-animal communication, with the main focus on the topic of communication between the animal soul and divine souls.

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