Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a Jewish Czech writer and novelist who wrote in German. He was born in Prague, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Many people consider him an important figure in 20th-century literature. His stories mix realism with fantasy elements and often show characters facing strange or confusing situations involving difficult government or official systems. The word "Kafkaesque" is now used to describe situations similar to those in his books. His most famous works include the novella The Metamorphosis (1915) and the novels The Trial (1924) and The Castle (1926). He is also known for his short stories and sayings, which sometimes include humor along with serious themes. His work influenced many artists, philosophers, composers, filmmakers, and scholars.

Kafka was born into a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (later the capital of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic). He studied to be a lawyer and later worked full-time in legal and insurance jobs. His job caused him to feel conflicted because he wanted to write instead. Few of his works were published during his lifetime. Collections like Contemplation (1912) and A Country Doctor (1919), along with individual stories such as The Metamorphosis, appeared in literary magazines but received little attention. He wrote many letters to family and close friends, including his father, with whom he had a difficult relationship. He became engaged to several women but never married. He died in 1924 at the age of 40 from tuberculosis. His friend and literary executor, Max Brod, ignored Kafka’s request to destroy his remaining works and instead published them, leading to his eventual recognition.

Life

Franz Kafka was born near the Old Town Square in Prague, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His family were German-speaking middle-class Ashkenazi Jews. His father, Hermann Kafka, was the fourth child of Jakob Kafka, a shochet (a person who prepares meat according to Jewish religious laws) in Osek, a Czech village near Strakonice in southern Bohemia. Hermann moved to Prague in the 1870s and opened a store selling haberdashery and ladies' accessories. He used the image of a jackdaw (called kavka in Czech) as his business logo. Kafka’s mother, Julie, was the daughter of Jakob Löwy, a cloth-maker in Humpolec, eastern Bohemia.

Kafka’s parents spoke German, influenced by their native Yiddish. Their children grew up speaking Standard German, which was very clean and pure. Kafka’s German did not include slang or trends common to his peers in Vienna or Berlin.

Hermann and Julie had six children, with Franz being the oldest. Two of Franz’s brothers died before he turned seven. His three sisters—Gabriele ("Elli"), Valerie ("Valli"), and Ottilie ("Ottla")—were murdered during the Holocaust in World War II. Valli was sent to the Łódź Ghetto in occupied Poland in 1942, but no further records of her exist. Ottla was Kafka’s favorite sister.

Hermann Kafka was described by scholars as a strong, demanding businessman. Franz’s father was often absent from home, as Julie worked long hours managing the family business. This made Kafka’s childhood lonely, and the children were mostly cared for by governesses and servants. Kafka had a difficult relationship with his father, which he wrote about in a long letter titled Letter to His Father. His mother was quiet and shy, and his father’s influence greatly affected his writing.

The Kafka family lived in a small apartment with a servant girl. Franz’s room was often cold. In 1913, the family moved to a larger apartment after two of his sisters married and left. In 1914, just as World War I began, the sisters returned to live with their parents because they did not know where their husbands were in the military. Franz moved into his sister Valli’s old apartment at age 31 and lived alone for the first time.

From 1889 to 1893, Kafka attended a German boys’ elementary school on Masná Street. His Jewish education ended with his bar mitzvah at age 13. He did not enjoy going to synagogue and only attended four major Jewish holidays with his father each year.

After elementary school, Kafka studied at a strict secondary school, the Altstädter Deutsches Gymnasium, where he learned German and Czech. He studied Czech for eight years and received praise for his skills, though he never considered himself fluent. He spoke German with a Czech accent. He completed his final exams in 1901.

In 1901, Kafka enrolled at the Deutsche Karl-Ferdinands-Universität in Prague. He initially studied philosophy and chemistry but switched to law after two weeks. His father supported this choice because law offered career opportunities. Law studies also allowed Kafka to take classes in German literature and art history. He joined a student club that organized literary events and became friends with writers, journalists, and actors.

At the end of his first year, Kafka met Max Brod, a fellow law student who became his lifelong friend. Brod later called Kafka and others "The Close Prague Circle." Kafka was a devoted reader and studied works by authors like Plato, Flaubert, and Dostoevsky. He admired some writers but had mixed feelings about Goethe, believing Goethe’s work might slow the development of the German language. Kafka earned his law degree in 1906 and worked as a law clerk for a year.

In 1907, Kafka began working at an insurance company called Assicurazioni Generali. He disliked the long hours, which made it hard to focus on writing. He left in 1908 and joined the Worker’s Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. His job involved investigating injuries to factory workers, such as lost fingers or limbs, caused by unsafe equipment. His father called this job a Brotberuf ("bread job"), a job only for earning money. Kafka disliked it but was quickly promoted. His duties included reviewing claims, writing reports, and handling disputes from businesses. He also prepared annual reports for the insurance institute.

Death

Franz Kafka's throat disease worsened, and in March 1924, he returned from Berlin to Prague. His family, especially his sister Ottla, and Dora Diamant cared for him. On April 10, he went to a sanatorium in Kierling, near Vienna, for treatment. He died there on June 3, 1924. Doctors believed he died from starvation because his throat condition made eating too painful. At that time, there were no methods to feed him through other means.

While in the sanatorium, Kafka was editing a story called "A Hunger Artist," which he had started writing before his throat condition made it impossible for him to eat. After his death, his body was brought back to Prague and buried on June 11, 1924, in the New Jewish Cemetery in Prague-Žižkov. News articles about his death appeared in the Prager Presse and the Berliner Tageblatt. During his lifetime, Kafka was not well-known, but he did not value fame. He became famous quickly after his death, especially after World War II. The tombstone at his burial site was designed by architect Leopold Ehrmann.

Works

Franz Kafka wrote all his published works in German. Very few of his works were published during his lifetime and received little attention from the public. Kafka did not finish any of his long novels and burned about 90% of his work, much of it while he lived in Berlin with Diamant, who helped him burn the drafts. In his early years as a writer, Kafka was influenced by von Kleist. In a letter to Bauer, Kafka described Kleist's work as frightening and said Kleist was closer to him than his own family. The first mention of Kafka's work was in an article by Max Brod on February 9, 1907, in the Berlin weekly Die Gegenwart, two years before Kafka's first publication. Brod wrote about Kafka again in 1921 in an essay titled "Der Dichter Frank Kafka."

Kafka's earliest published works were eight stories that appeared in 1908 in the first issue of the literary journal Hyperion under the title Betrachtung (Contemplation). He wrote the story "Beschreibung eines Kampfes" ("Description of a Struggle") in 1904 and showed it to Brod in 1905. Brod encouraged Kafka to continue writing and advised him to submit the story to Hyperion. Kafka published a fragment in 1908 and two sections in the spring of 1909, all in Munich.

On the night of September 22, 1912, Kafka wrote the story "Das Urteil" ("The Judgment") and dedicated it to Felice Bauer. Brod noticed that the names of the main character and Kafka's fictional fiancée, Georg Bendemann and Frieda Brandenfeld, were similar to Kafka's own name and Felice Bauer's. The story is often considered Kafka's most important early work. It explores the troubled relationship between a son and his dominant father after the son's engagement. Kafka later described writing the story as "a complete opening of body and soul," a story that "evolved as a true birth, covered with filth and slime." The story was first published in Leipzig in 1912 and dedicated "to Miss Felice Bauer," and in later editions "for F."

In 1912, Kafka wrote Die Verwandlung (The Metamorphosis, or The Transformation), which was published in 1915 in Leipzig. The story begins with a traveling salesman who wakes up to find himself transformed into an ungeheures Ungeziefer, a monstrous insect. Ungeziefer is a general term for unwanted and unclean pests, especially insects. Critics consider this work one of the most important pieces of fiction from the 20th century. The story "In der Strafkolonie" ("In the Penal Colony"), which describes an elaborate torture and execution device, was written in October 1914, revised in 1918, and published in Leipzig in October 1919. The story "Ein Hungerkünstler" ("A Hunger Artist"), published in the periodical Die neue Rundschau in 1924, describes a protagonist who is misunderstood for his strange craft of starving himself for long periods. His last story, "Josefine, die Sängerin oder Das Volk der Mäuse" ("Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk"), also deals with the relationship between an artist and his audience.

Kafka began his first novel in 1912; its first chapter is the story "Der Heizer" ("The Stoker"). He called the unfinished work Der Verschollene (The Man Who Disappeared or The Missing Person). After Kafka's death, Brod published it and named it Amerika. The inspiration for the novel came from Kafka's time in the audience of Yiddish theater the previous year, which made him think about his heritage. The novel is more humorous and realistic than most of Kafka's other works. It includes details from his relatives who had moved to America and is the only work for which Kafka considered an optimistic ending.

In 1914, Kafka began the novel Der Prozess (The Trial), which tells the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a distant, inaccessible authority. The nature of his crime is never revealed to him or the reader. Kafka did not complete the novel, although he finished the final chapter. Nobel Prize-winning author Elias Canetti said Felice Bauer was central to the plot of Der Prozess and that Kafka called it "her story." Canetti titled his book on Kafka's letters to Felice Kafka's Other Trial, recognizing the connection between the letters and the novel. Michiko Kakutani, in a New York Times review, noted that Kafka's letters share the same qualities as his fiction: attention to small details, awareness of power shifts, and an atmosphere of emotional pressure, combined with moments of youthful excitement.

According to his diary, Kafka was already planning his novel Das Schloss (The Castle) by June 11, 1914, but he did not start writing it until January 27, 1922. The protagonist is a land surveyor named K., who struggles to gain access to the mysterious authorities of a castle that governs a village. Kafka intended for the castle's authorities to tell K. on his deathbed that his "legal claim to live in the village was not valid, yet, taking certain circumstances into account, he was to be allowed

Critical response

After Kafka died, Rudolf Kayser wrote an article called "Anmerkungen zu Franz Kafka" for the Neue Rundschau, and Manfred Sturmann wrote a biographical essay called "Erinnerungen an Kafka" for the Allgemeine Zeitung. In 1935, Brod wrote a biography. However, because this work was written in German, most English critics could not read it.

From 1924 to 1927, Brod helped publish Kafka’s three unfinished novels and supported the spread of Kafka’s work. During this time, many essays were written about his writing. In the late 1920s, 55 articles were written about Kafka’s work, mostly reviews and references. Examples include Heinrich Jacob’s "Kafka oder die Wahrhaftigkeit" for Der Feuerreiter in 1924 and Brod’s "Infantilismus Kleist und Kafka" in 1927.

Kafka’s work was translated into English in the 1930s. American magazines and newspapers, such as The New Yorker, The Nation, Athenaeum, Scribners, New York Tribune, and The Bookman, wrote reviews about his books. The Castle was especially praised. However, until 1937, only three articles were written about Kafka.

At the same time, in Germany, only four articles were written in 1930, and eight in 1931. But in 1932, only one article was published, possibly because of the rise of the National Socialist party, which had strong antisemitic views. In Nazi Germany, between 1933 and 1937, only 11 articles about Kafka were published, mostly by Jewish writers in magazines like Der Morgen, Frankfurter Zeitung, Jüdische Rundschau, and Hochland. From 1937 to 1939, no articles were written about Kafka.

Kafka’s writings began to receive strong praise when they were published as a complete set in 1935 by Schocken, but the Nazi regime limited the spread of these works. The final books in this set were released after Schocken moved to Prague. After World War II, Kafka’s work became more famous in German-speaking countries and influenced German literature. Its influence spread worldwide in the 1960s. A complete edition of his works, including parts Brod had removed earlier, was published by S. Fischer Verlag in the late 20th century.

In 1937, The Trial was translated into English. It received 12 reviews in the United States and 20 reviews in other languages, including France and Brazil. Reviews were mixed. For example, a reviewer for The New York Times said, "It is beyond me," while others called Kafka "one of the most extraordinary writers of our time."

The next year, Amerika was translated into English and received positive reviews from four English and two American critics. In the same year, Das Schloss was translated into French and received five reviews.

In 1939, Kafka’s work was reviewed in many countries, including in periodicals like The Southern Review, The Kenyon Review, and Expressionism in German Life. In 1940, The Southern Review published a religious interpretation of The Trial. In 1941, 11 reviews and articles were published, including a doctor’s dissertation at the University of Zürich by Herbert Tauber, titled "Franz Kafka, eine Deutung seiner Werke." Writers in Peru, Cuba, and Brazil also showed interest in Kafka’s work.

In the early years of World War II, interest in Kafka’s work decreased in the United States, with only two articles published. In 1943, four articles were written, one of which criticized Kafka as a symbol of the failure of the Weimar Republic. The next year, interest in his work increased again, with six articles published. As the war ended, interest in Kafka grew, with 16 articles appearing in periodicals around the world, including Focus One, Quarterly Review of Literature, and Les Cahiers du Sud, as well as in the book Freudism and the Literary Mind. Many intellectuals, including Parker Tyler, Albert Camus, and Jean Wahl, wrote about Kafka’s work, linking it to existentialism. In 1946, 21 articles about Kafka were published.

The British-American poet W. H. Auden called Kafka "the Dante of the twentieth century." The novelist Vladimir Nabokov placed Kafka among the greatest writers of the 20th century. Gabriel García Márquez said reading Kafka’s The Metamorphosis showed him "that it was possible to write in a different way." A major theme in Kafka’s work, first seen in "The Judgment," is the conflict between fathers and sons, where the son’s guilt is resolved through suffering and atonement. Other themes include alienation, physical and psychological pain, characters on terrifying journeys, and mystical transformation.

Kafka’s writing style was compared to that of Kleist as early as 1916, in a review of "Die Verwandlung" and "Der Heizer" by Oscar Walzel in Berliner Beiträge. Critics have placed Kafka’s work into many literary groups. Marxists, for example, disagree about how to interpret his works. Some say he distorted reality, while others believe he criticized capitalism. The hopelessness and absurdity in his stories are seen as examples of existentialism. Some of Kafka’s books are influenced by the expressionist movement, though most of his work belongs to the modernist genre. Kafka also wrote about people’s struggles with bureaucracy. William Burrows says his work focuses on struggle, pain, loneliness, and the need for relationships. Others, like Thomas Mann, see Kafka’s work as allegorical, a spiritual search for God.

Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari say that themes like alienation and persecution in Kafka’s work have been overemphasized by critics. They argue that Kafka’s work is more intentional and challenging—and more joyful—than it seems. They say focusing on the futility of Kafka’s characters’ struggles shows his humor. Kafka’s friends laughed when he read his work aloud, even when it was dark. The novelist Milan Kundera suggests Kafka’s surreal humor was different from Dostoevsky’s, as Kafka’s characters are punished even when they have done nothing wrong. Kundera believes Kafka’s ideas came from his family life and his experience in a totalitarian state.

Kafka’s work has been seen as a warning about a future with totalitarian governments. Some scholars say his legal background influenced his writing. Many interpretations say the law in his stories is

Legacy

Many famous writers are often quoted, but Kafka is not. Instead, he is known for his unique ideas and how he saw the world. Kafka had a strong influence on writers like Gabriel García Márquez, Milan Kundera, and the book The Palace of Dreams by Ismail Kadare. Shimon Sandbank, a professor and writer, also says Kafka influenced Jorge Luis Borges, Albert Camus, Eugène Ionesco, J. M. Coetzee, and Jean-Paul Sartre. A Financial Times critic says Kafka influenced José Saramago, and Al Silverman, a writer, says J. D. Salinger loved Kafka's work. The Romanian writer Mircea Cărtărescu said, "Kafka is the author I love the most and who means, for me, the gate to literature"; he also called Kafka "the saint of literature."

Kafka influenced the Swedish writer Stig Dagerman and the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. Murakami honored Kafka in his book Kafka on the Shore, which includes a character named Kafka and a story titled "Samsa in Love," starting with the line, "He woke to discover that he had undergone a metamorphosis and become Gregor Samsa."

In 1999, a group of 99 authors and scholars ranked Der Process and Das Schloss as the second and ninth most important German-language novels of the 20th century. Harold Bloom said Kafka's work is as creative and original as that of Dante and challenges the work of Proust and Joyce. Sandbank says Kafka's style is hard to copy. Neil Christian Pages, a professor at Binghamton University, says Kafka's influence goes beyond literature to art, music, and popular culture. Harry Steinhauer, a professor of German and Jewish literature, says Kafka had a greater impact on society than any other 20th-century writer. Kafka's friend, Brod, said the 20th century will be called "the century of Kafka."

Michel-André Bossy wrote that Kafka created a world filled with strict, unchanging rules and bureaucracy. Kafka wrote in a distant, formal style using legal and scientific language. However, his serious stories also had clever humor, showing how a rational world can be illogical. His characters often feel trapped, confused, guilty, and unable to understand their strange world. Many stories written after Kafka, especially science fiction, follow themes from his work. This can be seen in the works of George Orwell and Ray Bradbury.

Examples of works across different genres that show Kafka's influence include:

The term "Kafkaesque" describes situations or ideas similar to Kafka's work, especially The Trial and The Metamorphosis. It often refers to situations where people feel overwhelmed by confusing, surreal bureaucracies that create feelings of helplessness. In a Kafkaesque setting, characters often struggle to find a way out of complex, confusing problems. This term is used in many types of stories, but it is also used to describe real-life situations that are very complicated or strange.

Many films and TV shows are described as Kafkaesque, especially dystopian science fiction. Examples include The Angel (1982), Brazil (1985), and Dark City (1998). Other films, like The Tenant (1976), Monsieur Klein (1976), and Barton Fink (1991), are also called Kafkaesque. TV shows like The Prisoner and The Twilight Zone are often described this way. Scholars say the term is now used so often that it is sometimes misused. Ben Marcus said Kafka's work is known for its powerful use of language, settings that mix fantasy and reality, and a sense of hope even in difficult situations.

An asteroid named 3412 Kafka was discovered in 1983 by American astronomers Randolph Kirk and Donald Rudy at Palomar Observatory in California. They named it after Kafka.

The Franz Kafka Museum in Prague honors Kafka and his work. A major exhibit, The City of K. Franz Kafka and Prague, was first shown in Barcelona in 1999, then moved to the Jewish Museum in New York City, and finally opened in Prague in 2005. The museum aims to help visitors understand the world Kafka lived in and wrote about.

The Franz Kafka Prize, created in 2001, is an annual award given by the Franz Kafka Society and the City of Prague. It honors literature that shows human values, promotes cultural and religious tolerance, and reflects on the human experience. The prize is given to living authors who have published work in Czech. Winners receive $10,000, a diploma, and a bronze statue at a ceremony in Prague's Old Town Hall in late October.

San Diego State University started the Kafka Project in 1998 to search for Kafka's last writings.