Work, Modernism and Thinking Through the Aesthetic
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Editors
Attridge, J
Rydstrand, H
Publisher
ISBN-13
9781501344015
Location
Journal
Modernist Work: Labor, Aesthetics, and the Work of Art
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This chapter argues that, its fantastic premise notwithstanding, Kafka’s 1915 story Metamorphosis is much concerned with the banal realities of modern work, recounting both Gregor Samsa’s anxieties about his irksome job as a travelling salesman and the consequences that ensue when he is no longer able to perform his professional duties. Gregor’s transformation, is read as an exemplary instance of the “work of literature,” imagining a way, “however absurd and impossible, through which Gregor can transcend these constraints and experience himself as having a degree of autonomy and agency.” This mini-reading of Metamorphosis is followed by a survey of new developments in critical work studies, including the theory of immaterial labor, the prospects for a post-work future and movements that aim to reimagine work itself outside of a capitalist model.