To accomplish my PhD thesis, I am currently conducting research examining the impact of Franz Kafka's stories on Taiwanese literature during the Martial Law period (1949-1989).
In Taiwan, novelists Wang Wen-Hsing and Pai Hsien-Yung were apparently influenced by Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" [1915] and "A Hunger Artist" [1922], perceived as a "return of repression" during the Martial Law period. However, I am uncovering some exceptions. In Taiwanese science fiction, some characters similar to Red Peter in "A Report to an Academy" [1917] undergo a nuclear experiment, transforming from transgender to disabled identities.
Informed by disability studies and influenced by Jack Halberstam and Paul Preciado, I will revalue Kafka's impact in Taiwan through a transgender studies perspective. Beyond the modernist framework, I will discover Kafka's influences in science fiction, labor, and nativist literature during the period. Engaging with transgender and trans-species studies, I will conduct interdisciplinary research to new dimensions within my academic exploration.
