Non est pura voluptas. Fisiologia e psicopatologia dell’amplesso in Kafka e Lucrezio

Two passages from Kafka's novel The Castle describe the embraces of the protagonist K. with a servant of the hostel where he is staying. The two scenes and the expressions used by the writer to describe them refer to two well-known passages from Lucretius's De rerum natura. It is not easy to determine whether it is a conscious revival (Pasquali's "allusive art") or a simple reminiscence, but the circumstance constitutes in any case the testimonyof a spiritual affinity between the two authors.