What the exam asks
In the IB Language A: language and literature course, 5 to 10 short stories by one author count as a single literary work. In the HL essay, the guide says you should refer to more than one text when your work is a collection; in Paper 2, the guide sets no fixed number, but discussing two or three stories is the strongest way to show knowledge of the whole work rather than relying on The Metamorphosis alone.
In Paper 2, you answer one of four general literary questions in 1 hour 45 minutes without the texts, comparing two studied works. Under the 2026 criteria (25 marks total), Criterion B1 (5 marks) tests your analysis and evaluation of textual features and broader authorial choices—such as narrative perspective, structure, openings, endings, and characterization—while Criterion B2 (5 marks) rewards sustained comparative analysis. Discussing two or three of Kafka’s stories together allows you to demonstrate knowledge of the whole work (Criterion A) while showing how he adapts his signature methods to different situations.
Core ideas
The six stories as one coherent work
Franz Kafka (born in Prague in 1883, died in 1924) wrote in German while working at the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute. Our selection of six stories spans his entire mature writing life (1912–1922) and all three phases of his lifetime publication: the 1912 breakthrough, the war-years stories (1914–1919), and the late stories. Together they exhibit every major choice described below.
| English Title | German Title | Written & Published | Form / Key Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Judgment | Das Urteil | Written night of 22–23 Sept 1912; pub. 1913 in yearbook Arkadia (ed. Max Brod); book 1916 (Kurt Wolff) | Dedicated to Felice Bauer (later “for F.”); his breakthrough story |
| The Metamorphosis | Die Verwandlung | Written autumn 1912; pub. Oct 1915 in Die weissen Blätter; book Dec 1915 (Kurt Wolff) | Three parts (I, II, III); ~70 printed pages, the longest story he published |
| In the Penal Colony | In der Strafkolonie | Written Oct 1914, revised 1918; pub. Oct 1919 (Kurt Wolff) | Extended dialogue and demonstration at an execution site |
| Before the Law | Vor dem Gesetz | Pub. 1915 in Jewish weekly Selbstwehr; collected in Ein Landarzt (A Country Doctor, 1919) | Short parable; also told by the priest in the cathedral chapter of The Trial |
| A Report for an Academy | Ein Bericht für eine Akademie | Written and pub. 1917 in Martin Buber’s monthly Der Jude; collected in A Country Doctor (1919) | First-person dramatic monologue / formal academic address |
| A Hunger Artist | Ein Hungerkünstler | Pub. 1922 in Die neue Rundschau; title story of 1924 collection (printed just after his death) | Impersonal cultural retrospective narrowing to one performer |
1. Openings that state the impossible or extreme as fact
Kafka never eases the reader into a strange world; his openings establish an extreme premise in a calm, matter-of-fact register and immediately move to mundane logistics.
- The Metamorphosis: Opens in plain past tense with Gregor’s transformation, then immediately inventories his back, belly, and legs before worrying about the rain and his job.
- The Judgment: Opens in a deceptively calm pastoral key on “a Sunday morning at the most beautiful time in spring” (trans. Ian Johnston) before the collapse inside the father’s room.
- In the Penal Colony: Opens mid-conversation with the Officer casually praising a torture machine.
- Before the Law: Opens with the stark simplicity of a folk tale or legal statute: a doorkeeper stands before the law, and a man from the country asks to enter.
- A Report for an Academy: Opens with the formal courtesies of a scientific lecture delivered by a former ape.
- A Hunger Artist: Opens like a dry essay on cultural history: “In the last decades interest in hunger artists has declined considerably” (trans. Ian Johnston).