The Trans Experience Through the Reading of Kafka’s Metamorphosis. An Interpretative Approach from the Social Sciences

Abstract

Trans people face adverse experiences for moving away from the dominant view of the sex-gender system. They experience conflicts between their psychic and corporeal dimensions, loneliness, rejection, and discrimination from their social environment. This article shows that trans -especially transgender- experiences coincide with those of Gregor Samsa in Kafka’s Metamorphosis. This metaphoric interpretation is not only possible, but also plausible. Drawing on Grounded Theory, this work contributes to the literature on gender, sexual diversity, and the sociology of literature.