The Literature of Emigration and Exile is a collection of works from various writers that explore the literature of emigration and exile. These writers examine poetic, fictional, and biographical voices from settings such as Turkey, renaissance Italy, modern Spain, Central and South America, Eastern Europe, China, Canada, and elsewhere.

Franz Kafka's most famous novella is given the Critical Insights treatment in this volume. Essays include a new lengthy biography about the author which warns that, although The Metamorphosis is considered to be highly autobiographical, it is ultimately a work of the imagination. Other essays include a discussion of the cultural and historical context of the work, the structure and function of self-alienation, Kafka's metaphor for extreme alienation, and a selective survey of the critical reception of The Metamorphosis.