SOURCE: "Transformation of Criticism: The Impact of Kafka's Metamorphosis" in The Dove and the Mole: Kafka's Journey into Darkness and Creativity, edited by Moshe Lazar and Ronald Gottesman, Undena Publications, 1987, pp. 13-34.

In the following essay, Beicken surveys contemporary criticism of The Metamorphosis.

The history of Kafka criticism appears to be a history of controversy. At the center of these critical combats is a writer about whom Ralph Freedman once remarked: "Kafka's obscurity is mirrored in the confusion of his critics."¹ Indeed, Kafka's quintessential mode of writing and representation seems to be responsible for what the critics have done to his works: they have attributed every possible interpretation to his works and as a result the myriad of readings which exist seem to attest to the persistent paradoxes, impasses and pitfalls of establishing meaning in Kafka. And a cursory view of this plurality at best, and critical chaos...