2024 is the centenary of the death of Franz Kafka and the Bodleian, which holds a substantial part of the Kafka archive, is hosting a major exhibition on Kafka's life, work and cultural legacy. As part of this celebration, a special printing of the OUP World’s Classic edition of The Metamorphosis is being given to all Oxford students, which will have a specially designed cover and text to identify it with the ‘Oxford reads Kafka’ season.
St Cross Fellow Professor Eben Kirksey will host a "read in" for the St Cross College community and talk about the broader University events that will approach Kafka's work through diverse lenses: disability, monsters, insects, gene editing and more. Kafka’s work and The Metamorphosis in particular continues to have a powerful resonance in contemporary life from common references in the media, to the Hollywood movie The Fly, to Ian McEwan’s novella.
Bring along your copy of The Metamorphosis and we will read this together and discuss how it relates to pressing issues of our times.
