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5. Saint-Petersburg as a semantic lens in Kafka’s story «The Judgment» («Das Urteil») (OPEN ACCESS)

Saint-Petersburg as a semantic lens in Kafka’s story «The Judgment» («Das Urteil») (OPEN ACCESS)

Zherebin A.I.*, Sokolova E.V.**

*The Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, **Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Abstract

The article incorporates Kafka’s short story «The Judgement» (1912) into the context of «the Petersburg Myth» of Russian literature. Following Kafka’s own observations on the possible nature of hidden senses in «The Judgement» (mentioned in his «Diaries» and «Letters to Felice»), the authors apply the principles of «catachretical logic» (Igor Smirnov) to the figurative system, plot and personal names in the story and reveal some new meanings leading to new possible interpretations. These new meanings brought into correlation with psychoanalytical approaches and models enable them to discover some «optical properties» of St. Petersburg as a «semantic lens» in the story of Franz Kafka.

Keywords

«The Petersburg Myth» of Russian literature; European expressionism; psychoanalysis in literature; Franz Kafka; Kafka’s «The Judgement»; semantization of personal names; catachresis

For citing: Zherebin A.I., Sokolova E.V. Saint-Petersburg as a semantic lens in Kafka’s story «The Judgment» («Das Urteil»). Human being: Image and essence. Humanitarian aspects. Мoscow, 2019. Vol. 2(37): Komalova, L., Tregubova, D. (eds.) Semantics of Russianess, pp. 45-60. DOI: 10.31249/chel/2019.02.00

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