Assignment wk2

ENG 125: Introdu ction to Literatu re

Sample Annotated Bibliography

The Annotated Bibliography includes a citation of the source in APA format. It also includes a brief summary of

the source. See the example below of the primary source:

Kafka, F. (1990). The m etamorphosis . New York, NY: Scribner Paperback Fiction.

The Metamorphosis begins when Gregor Samsa wakes up and discovers he has been transformed into a large

insect. The story tells how he and his family deal with his transformation, which a focus on the dehumanization

that Gregor faces in his job and his family role. Gregor attempts to communicate, but cannot and, isolated and

misunderstood, he slowly deteriorates. Kafka uses Gregor’s transformation into an insect as a metaphor for how

modern life squashes our ability to interrelat e with others and create meaning in our lives.

In your Annotated Bibliography you will find two sources that will help you explore and discuss your primary

text.

Ryan, S. (2007) . Franz Kafka’s Di e Verwandlung: Transformation, m etaphor, and the

perils of a ssimilation. Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies, 43 (1), 1 -18.

This source by Simon Ryan explores how Kafka’s Jewishness created anxiety about his body, particularly since

anti -semitism pervaded his Czech culture. The stereotypes of Jewishness did not a llow Jewish people to easily

assimilate into the dominant culture, though many Jews attempted to do so. Gregor Samsa’s transformation into

an insect is a metaphor of the power and pervasiveness of anti -semitism and the inability of a Jewish man to fully

assimilate. The insect body symbolizes how Jewish people were viewed and Gregor’s quiet extinction

foreshadows the Holocaust. This source helps to define how body image, coupled with Jewishness, can alienate a

person from the culture around him. ENG 125: Introdu ction to Literatu re

So kel, W. H . (1983). From Marx to myth: The structure and function of self -alienation in

Kafka’s Metamorphosis . Literary Review, 26 (4), 485 -496.

Walter Sokel discusses the concept of self -alienation and how Kafka’s story represents it in a literal way. Using a

Marxist analysis, Sokel shows how labor, as it is defined in the story, is structured within a capitalist system

where the worker -- Gregor -- is aliena ted from the product of his labor. Therefore, his work has no meaning to

him. However, describing this as a “mythical setting,” Sokel shows how Gregor assumes guilt for his inability to

provide labor and, as a result, dies without ever recovering his human ity. This source will help define why Gregor

turned into an insect and how the economic system alienated him from himself and his family.