COR 317 LIVING IN AN UPSIDE-DOWN WORLD: KAFKA AND THE KAFKAESQUE
We live in a time when individual control is illusory. Unseen forces take the upper hand. Vague threats—terrorism, climate change, that other political party—haunt the back of our minds. We continue with daily life, knowing the sky hasn’t fallen, but with the persistent sense that something is out of place. That vague notion is Kafka’s landscape. His works are not violent or shocking; they’re weird but recognizable, like a bizarre dream. Through focused study of Kafka’s The Trial and other works (film, graphic novels), students and the instructor will try to define this frequently-used but poorly-defined term, applying it to academic questions and to life beyond the classroom, investigating what the Kafkaesque can teach us about modern existence and the individual’s role in society. This course is writing intensive. Open to students in the third or fourth year of study. Counts toward the German Studies minor.
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