classicrockrox
New member
I am to interpret a small section of a literary criticism of 'The Metamorphosis' by F. Kafka and I don't understand this segment at all:
"With pathetic goodwill, he [Gregor] tries to impart order to what has happened to him and so both the incommensurable and the terrible become normal. Kafka had recourse to one of his best-loved narrative techniques, 'restriction of the field', which deprives us of some elements of Gregor's consciousness. Thus, without any narrative intervention, he was able to represent with lacerating simplicity the terrible atony, the painful acceptance of life which makes Gregor the last and greatest of Flaubertian heroes."
The two main problems I have is that,
1. I don't understand the term 'restriction of the field' fully.
2. I am not familiar with Flaubert and therefore don't understand the allusion.
What is a Flaubertian hero and what does the 'restriction of the field' term mean?
"With pathetic goodwill, he [Gregor] tries to impart order to what has happened to him and so both the incommensurable and the terrible become normal. Kafka had recourse to one of his best-loved narrative techniques, 'restriction of the field', which deprives us of some elements of Gregor's consciousness. Thus, without any narrative intervention, he was able to represent with lacerating simplicity the terrible atony, the painful acceptance of life which makes Gregor the last and greatest of Flaubertian heroes."
The two main problems I have is that,
1. I don't understand the term 'restriction of the field' fully.
2. I am not familiar with Flaubert and therefore don't understand the allusion.
What is a Flaubertian hero and what does the 'restriction of the field' term mean?