Filozofska istraživanja, Vol. 45 No. 2, 2025.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21464/fi45203
Intrapersonal Communication of Divine Soul and Animal Soul. Kafka’s Beetle in the 21st Century
Goran Rem
; Sveučilište J. J. Strossmayera u Osijeku, Filozofski fakultet, Ulica Lorenza Jägera 9, HR–31000 Osijek
Paula Rem
; Sveučilište J. J. Strossmayera u Osijeku, Akademija za umjetnost i kulturu u Osijeku, Ulica Kralja Petra Svačića 1/F, HR–31000 Osijek
Abstract
In Kafka’s prose, animal characters are allegorical and symbolic representations of people, their intellectual and emotional aspects. Kafka’s texts reflect the Judeo-Christian view of man as composed of soul and body, with animals symbolically representing the aspect of the body in a communicative relationship. Jewish theosophy identifies the body with the animal soul (nefeš habehamit), and the human soul with the divine soul (nefeš haelokit). The communicative relationships of anthropomorphized animals in Kafka’s literature can be interpreted: a) as metaphorical aspects of intrapersonal communication between the divine and animal souls in the system of Jewish theosophy, b) on a literal interpretive level of human-animal communication with the imperative of environmental protection, c) as postcolonial metaphors for relations between cultures. The paper contains a qualitative content analysis and a quantitative analysis of Kafka’s prose texts dealing with human-animal communication, with the main focus on the topic of communication between the animal soul and divine souls.
Keywords
anthropomorphization of animals in literature; content analysis of communication sciences; Franz Kafka; intrapersonal communication; Jewish theosophy; Judeo-Christianity
Hrčak ID:
335470
URI
Publication date:
25.9.2025.
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