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The Kafka Protagonist as Knight Errant and Scapegoat

This study presents an alternative approach to the novels of Franz Kafka through demonstrating that the Kafkan protagonist may be conceptualized in terms of mythic archetypes: the knight errant and the pharmakos. These complementary yet contending personalities animate the Kafkan victim-hero and account for his paradoxical nature. The widely varying fates of Karl Rossmann, Joseph K., and K. are foreshadowed and partially explained by their simultaneous kinship and uniqueness. The Kafka protagonist, like the hero of quest-romance, is engaged in a quest which symbolizes man's yearning to transcend sterile human existence.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc663507
Date08 1900
CreatorsScrogin, Mary R.
ContributorsStevens, L. Robert, Kobler, J. F. (Jasper Fred), 1928-, Hughes, Robert L.
PublisherNorth Texas State University
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatiii, 136 leaves, Text
RightsPublic, Scrogin, Mary R., Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights

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