Possibly the most widely influential writer of the twentieth century was Franz Kafka; this course will be about that assertion. We shall begin by reading (in translation) three works by Kafka himself: Metamorphosis, The Trial, and The Castle. Then we shall consider his influence on three writers of the next generation who determined the separation of postmodernism from modernism: Nabokov, Beckett, and Borges. Finally, we shall consider such living (and disparate) writers as Pinter, Barth, and Roth. The question of the course will be how a rather unworldly and almost unpublished minor writer from Prague helped to invent our contemporary sense of absurdity, exile, and self-alienation. Requirements: two papers (5-7 pages and 6-8 pages). Prerequisite: 100-level English course, except 150. Enrollment limit:25. (Post-1900)