Radio adaptation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis as a “realistic work” in the context of selected film adaptations

Abstract

Razprava izhaja iz dosedanjih raziskav pripovednih strategij Kafkove proze Die Verwandlung/Preobrazba (1915). Osredotoča se na radijsko igro režiserja in scenarista Josefa Henkeja Proměna (1967) ter jo analizira v primerjavi s filmskimi adaptacijami (Jan Němec, Valerij V. Fokin, Carlos Atanes). Dramatik delno zatre latentno prisotne simbolne, nadrealistične, parabolične, ekspresionistične, eksistencialne, absurdne itd. vidike Kafkovega dvodimenzionalnega besedila in ga predstavi v iluzorno realistični poetiki. Odlikuje se v umetnosti živega dialoga, čeprav hkrati spoštuje posebnosti literarnega stila. Radijska igra ustvarja iluzijo specifičnega prostora in »obstajanja« predstavljenih prizorov. Odtujenost igra ključno vlogo v mnogih dimenzijah tega koncepta. Řehoř ne preneha biti človek niti v odtujeni telesnosti. Priredba ni polemična, prikazuje nenavadno zanimiv lik, podoben resnični Kafkovi usodi.

The study is based on previous research on the narrative strategies of Kafka’s prose Die Verwandlung (1915). It focuses on the radio play by director and screenwriter Josef Henke Proměna (1967) in comparison with film adaptations (Jan Němec, Valerij V. Fokin, Carlos Atanes). The playwright partially suppresses the latently present symbolic, surreal, parabolic, expressionist, existential, absurd aspects of Kafka’s two-dimensional text and presents it in an illusory realistic poetics. He excels in the art of “live dialogue”, although at the same time he respects the peculiarities of the literary style. The radio play creates the illusion of a specific space and the “existence” of the presented scenes. Alienation plays a key role in many dimensions of this concept. The adaptation is not polemical, it depicts an unusually interesting character, similar to Kafka’s real destiny.