Odradek, inapprehensive chimera

Abstract

Through the use of the idea of chimera, this essay will attempt to understand the open constitution of the character Odradek, from the short story “The cares of a family man” by Franz Kafka. What is interesting in this short story is the displacement (which includes the possibilities of gender expression in languages) Odradek imposes on the narrator’s constant effort (representing specific social groups) to categorize him/it and consequently the reader’s effort to enclose him/it in a closed interpretation. Odradek seems to be impossible to apprehend using main literary, biological or social categories which helped found of the idea of Modernity