Kafka in intermedialer Verflechtung – Die Verwandlung im Original und als Graphic Novel als Gegenstand literaturwissenschaftlicher und rezeptionsästhetischer Überlegungen

Abstract

Movies based on literature have a fixed place in German classrooms. Adaptations in the form of comics and Graphic Novels still fight for this kind of appreciation. This might be due to its reputation as a trivial form of literature or to the fact that few teachers feel like they lack knowledge when it comes to read, analyze and interpret these mediums.

In order to understand why adaptions in these forms earn the same attention as other intermedial translations, I conducted a qualitative empirical study with students of Higher Classes. In this research pupils were asked to perform a think-aloud while reading either a part of Kafka’s Die Verwandlung (“metamorphosis”) or the similar part of Corbeyran’s and Horne’s adaption Die Verwandlung von Franz Kafka. The aim is to understand similarities and differences between Kafka’s narrative and its comic- adaption on various levels. It is of no interest, what the better approach in classes might be, but to gain more insight in what is happening, when pupils read.