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In America Karl Rossmann is `packed off to American by his parents` to experience Oedipal and cultural isolation. Here, ordinary immigrants are also strange, and `America` is never quite as real as it should be. Kafka, a Czech writing in German, never acutally visited America; so, as Max Brod commented, `the innocence of his fantasy gives this book if advanture its peculiar colour.` Both Joseph K in The Trial and K in The Castle are victims of anonymous governing forces beyond their control. Both are atomised, estranged and rootless citizens decieved by authoritarian power. Whereas Joseph K is relentlessly hunted down for a crime that remains nameless, K ceaselessly attempts to enter the castle and so belong somewhere. Together these novels may be read as powerful allegories of totalitarian government in whatever guise it appears today.ISBN 9780099518440
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Pages : 768
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