Allusions and References in our society


Allusions and references from other works

 

Plays:

 

 

* A very short sequel, The Retransformation of Gregor Samsa, was written by Karl Brand. Brand, who suffered from tuberculosis and had to rely on his family, identified himself strongly with Samsa.

* A longer sequel, Insect Dreams: The Half Life of Gregor Samsa was written in 2002 by Marc Estrin.In it, Gregor is revealed to have survived his apparent death at the end of the original story and goes on to have additional travels and experiences.

 

Movies:

 

* In Mel Brooks' 1968 movie The Producers, two men working on a fraud scheme are looking for the worst play they can find, and pass up The Metamorphosis (after having read the line about Gregor being a giant insect) as being "too good". This dialogue survives in the 2001 Broadway and 2005 movie adaptations.

* In another Mel Brooks movie, Spaceballs, Dark Helmet passes a reference to Kafka when their spaceship is transforming into a gigantic maid.

* In the movie version of Naked Lunch (film) one character (Joan Lee, played by Judy Davis) mentions Kafka in connection with a poison against bugs which they use as drug and causes visions involving grotesque speaking insects, saying "It's a Kafka high; you feel like a bug."

 

Animation:

 

* In The Venture Bros. episode "Mid-Life Chrysalis", Dr. Venture's transformation into a caterpillar slightly mirrors that of Gregor Samsa's transformation. Quote: "Gentlemen, what you are about to see is a nightmare inexplicably torn from the pages of Kafka!"

* A reference appears in the 2006 Aardman Animation feature film Flushed Away. When a refrigerator falls through the floor of the protagonist Rita's home. A giant cockroach appears reading a copy of The Metamorphosis.

 

Comics:

 

* In The Simpsons book Treehouse of Horror Spook-tacular Matt Groening did a spoof on the Metamorphosis, entitling it Metamorphosimpsons. In addition, in one of the episodes, Lisa attends a place called "Cafe Kafka", which is shown to be a popular place for college students, and features several posters of cockroaches in Bohemian-like poses.

* In the popular comic Calvin and Hobbes Hobbes claims that if he does not receive a good night kiss, he will have Kafka dreams.

* In the popular comic FoxTrot Jason sleeps with the hopes of waking up as a beetle but instead wakes up as a younger clone of his sister.

 

Television Shows:

 

* In the television series Smallville, Chloe speculates that a character who seems to be transforming into an insect is "going Kafka". (person in show is named Greg and gains bug-like traits)

 

Literature:

 

* In Pet Sematary by Stephen King the protagonist's wife fed her sister Zelda who had spinal meningitis. The family was ashamed of her and wanted her to die. They were relieved when she finally passed much like the Samsas were relieved when Gregor finally passed.

 

 

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