A contrast can be drawn between TWIG's Castle of Inismore and Kakfa's Castle in The Castle. The first instance largely follows Gothic convention presenting Inismore mysteriously at first but ultimately yielding to the reader all its secrets. Its inhabitants are at once all-too-human in their weakenesses but they also symbolize cosmopolitan Mortimer's [I guess I got the names mixed up... Horatio, not Mortimer?] increasingly amorous (Glorvina), pious (Father John), and historical (the Prince) sympathies with Ireland. It does not take long for Mortimer to add Irish to his list of foreign languages and esteemed cultures. Petrarch's sonnets are eventually placed alongside Glorvina's songs. In addition to this sympathetic, literary portrayal, the novel also provides copious footnotes which read like a travelogue or brochure: come see the sights of Ireland! Just as Ireland seduces Mortimer, the novel seeks to advertise Ireland to a cosmopolitan readership.
Cosmopolitanism and Ireland also appears in Joyce, but Kafka's surreal The Castle struck me as specifically refusing to reveal the inner-workings of the people or government of its bizarre nation-state. The Castle constantly alienates its protagonist and its reader even though its plot is similar to TWIG (protagonist comes to castle under false/incorrect pretenses, tries to meet sovereign, falls in love with native girl, etc.).
If TWIG and The Castle are seen as two alternate ways to portray to a cosmopolitan audience a "minor" or "peripheral" culture, how might one describe their different merits?
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