Roach Rhino Redux: Revisiting Parallels in Kafka and Ionesco

Fifty years after doing a college thesis comparing Kafkas short story The Metamorphosis and Ionescos play Rhinoceros Ethan Hirsh takes a lively look at how the two works have withstood the test of time with surprising results from around the world-- new adaptations new media and new reasons for their ongoing and growing popularity. The authors original thesis from 1967 is included in its entirety and endures as a valid and entertaining work of literary criticism analyzing how the two writers used the device of physical transformation to achieve their parallel goals. Hirsh supplements his recent research with a Coda for Conservation that examines the dire plight of endangered rhinos in the wild.