Metapmorphosis was published in 1915.
Some would say that it is impossible to fully appreciate the text without understanding something of the historical context in which it was written.
Complete some elementary research into the period. Look into the year it was written and the preceding few years. Remember that Kafka lived and worked in Prague.
It may be helpful to consider...
Art
Literature
World Affairs
War
Travel and Transport
Invention and Scientific Progress
Post some findings
Many things happened in 1915 such as....
ReplyDeleteIn Literature:
Authors died such as:
James Elroy Flecker (poet, novelist)
Rupert Brooke (War Poer)
Mary Elizabeth Braddon (Novelist)
Literature included:
Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham (Book)
T.S.Eliot - The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock (Poetry)
Events:
Poem 'into battle' was published weeks before it's autor Julian Grenfell is killed in battle.
Russian poet Sergei Yesenin published his first book of poems titled Radumitsa
World Affairs/War included:
- United States House of Representatives rejects proposal to give the women right to vote.
- German bomb cities in United Kingdom killing more than 20.
- World War I had been on for a year..
- NACA, the predecessor of NASA founded.
- The first prototype tank is tested for the British Army for the first time.
- Albert Einstein publishes the general theory of relativity.
- The first oil boom came to the Prague community in 1915 with the discovery of the Paden field, From 1915 to 1923 there was a great deal of leasing of desirable land by oil companies around Prague, but no new fields were discovered.
Inventions:
- late tectonics: Alfred Wegener, Germany, 1912–1915
- Vitamin B: McCollum, U.S., 1915–1916
- lipstick tube, 1915, Maurice Levy, US
- sonar, 1915, Paul Langevin, France
- tank (military), 1915, Admiralty Landships Committee, UK
Inventions
ReplyDeletePlate tectonics: Alfred Wegener, Germany, 1912–1915.
January 25, 1915. First transcontinental phone call is made.
1915 Automobile self-starter Charles Franklin Kettering American
Vitamin B: McCollum, U.S., 1915–1916
Litrature
Deaths
January 3 - James Elroy Flecker, poet, novelist and dramatist (b. 1884)
February 4 - Mary Elizabeth Braddon, novelist (b. 1837)
April 8 - Louis Pergaud, French novelist (b. 1882)
Books published
Rafael Sabatini - The Sea Hawk
T. S. Eliot - The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Francis Ledwidge - Songs of the Fields
Nobel Prize for Literature: Romain Rolland (French)
Art
Ilia Efimovich Repin 1915 Self-portrait at work – Prague; National Gallery
Prague
Jan Hus landmark by Jan Kotera,1915
Leoš Janáček - His operas premiered in Brno before being performed in Prague; Jenůfa didn’t win wide acclaim until it was shown in Prague in 1915.
World
First world war was happening
Pluto is photographed for the first time but was not recognized as a planet.
First use of poison gas as a weapon of war.
Actress Audrey Munson does the first cinematic disrobing in the film "Inspiration".
Sarah Pettigrew.
1915:
ReplyDeleteWar-In prague it was decided it would be a single federal state of 2 republics and it was signed in Cleverland.
The army was defeated at the battle of Lemberay.
In may Italy joined Triple enere attacked Austria-Hungry.
Austria-Hungrian army in conjunction with the German and Bulgarian armies conquered Serbia.
Literature
Nobel prize went to Romain Rolland because of the'Lofty idealism of his literacy production and to sympathy and love of truth which he described diffrent types of human beings'
Transport-Buses,Trains
World
Jan Hus monument and Kinski Palace
Famous protestan leader,burned for heresey.Built at old town square and unveiled 500 years after his death.
Inventions
Activated chacrol gas marks-James bert Garner and Nikolay Zelinsky
Pryex by coring inc
Glassware,borosilicated gas.
Nicole Hall.
I had a post but Pablo Picasso's full name killed it. Stupid Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso. All the stuff I wrote about the sinking of the Titanic, the assassination of Arch Duke Franz-Ferdinand, the Triple Entente, Hollywood becoming the centre of America's Film industry, the invention of the zipper, stainless steel and the crossword. All gone, thanks to Picasso.
ReplyDeleteWait, I managed to recover it. Picasso isn't being mentioned this time in case he breaks it again.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened around 1915? Well...
War
The Balkan war in the south east of Europe 1912-13
World War I 1914-18
Assassination of Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand 1914
Politics
Great Britain, France and Russia were in the Triple Entente
Travel and Transport
The Titanic sank in 1912
The Panama Canal was completed in 1914
The Ford model T was the most popular car
Inventions
The first prototype tanks were tested
Harry Brearly invented stainless steel
Gideon Sundback invented the modern zipper
Science
Max Von Laue discovered the diffraction of x-rays through crystal.
Alfred Wegener put forward the theory of continental drift.
Popular Culture
Hollywood became centre of the American film industry.
The debut of Charlie Chaplin’s famous “The Tramp” character.
The first real crossword puzzle invented by Arthur Wynne, a journalist from Liverpool, no less.
Literature
Edgar Rice Burroughs- Tarzan of the Apes
Willa Cather- O Pioneers!
Arthur Conan Doyle- The Valley of Fear
Franz Kafka- The Judgement