Gregor Samsa’s Spots of Indeterminacy: Kafka as Phenomenologist
Gregor Samsa’s Spots of Indeterminacy: Kafka as Phenomenologist

Summary/Abstract: Kafka’s presentation of Gregor Samsa in Metamorphosis is explicable using Ingarden’s ontology of the literary work of art. The common heritage of Kafka’s and Ingarden’s theoretical commitments (Franz Brentano) might explain the conceptual parallel. More importantly, an Ingardenian analysis of Gregor Samsa demonstrates that (1) Kafka is at least implicitly aware of some of the central tenets of later phenomenology and uses them to literary advantage; and (2) Ingarden’s ontology of the literary work of art works particularly well in the case of Kafka’s novel, which provides an example of some of the analysis’ more obscure aspects (in particular, Ingarden’s concept of spots of indeterminacy).

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