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FRANZ KAFKA
“Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself.”
– Franz Kafka

INTRODUCTION
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924)
was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded
as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements
of realism and the fantastic.

BACKGROUND
BIRTH
Franz Kafka was born into a middle-class, German-speaking Jewish family on July
3, 1883 in Prague, Bohemia, now the Czech Republic .

FAMILY
HIS SIBLINGS;
Franz was the eldest of six children. He had two younger brothers
who died in infancy and three younger sisters (Gabriele (1889–1941), Valerie
(1890–1942), Ottilie (1892–1943), all of whom perished in concentration camps.

KAFKA’S FATHER
His father, Hermann Kafka (1852–1931), was described by Kafka himself as "a true
Kafka in strength, health, appetite, loudness of voice, eloquence, self-satisfaction,
worldly dominance, endurance, presence of mind, [and] knowledge of human
nature ...". Hermann was the fourth child of Jacob Kafka, a butcher, and came to
Prague from Osek, a Jewish village near Písek in southern Bohemia. After working
as a traveling sales representative, he established himself as an independent
retailer of men's and women's fancy goods and accessories, employing up to 15
people and using a jackdaw (kavka in Czech) as his business logo.
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KAFKA’S RELATION WITH HIS FATHER

His father, Hermann Kafka was described as a huge ill-
tempered domestic tyrant, who on many occasions directed his anger towards his
son, KAFKA and was disrespectful towards his escape into literature.

Kafka’s most of personal struggles (in writing, romance and other things) came due
to his complicated relationship with his father.

A great sourse of frustration for Kafka was his father who overshadowed Kafka’s
childhood and youth. All his life Kafka struggled to come to terms with his
domineering father.

KAFKA’S mother
Kafka's mother, Julie (1856—1934), was the daughter of a
prosperous brewer and was better educated than her husband. She helped to
manage her husband's business and worked in it as much as 12 hours a day. The
children were largely raised by a series of governesses and servants. His mother,
Julie, was a devoted homemaker who lacked the intellectual depth to understand
her son's dreams to become a writer. But still he inherited sensitivities and dreamy
qualities from mother.

Education
German was his first language. In fact, despite his Czech background and Jewish
roots, Kafka's identity favored German culture.

Kafka was a smart child who did well in school even at the Altstädter
Staatsgymnasium, an exacting high school for the academic elite. Still, even while
Kafka earned the respect of his teachers, he chafed under their control and the
school's control of his life.

After high school Kafka enrolled at the Charles Ferdinand University of Prague,
where intended to study chemistry but after just two weeks switched to law. The
change pleased his father, and also gave Kafka the time to take classes in art and
literature.

In 1906 Kafka completed his law degree and embarked on a year of unpaid work as
a law clerk.

Work Life
After completing his apprenticeship, Kafka found work with an Italian
insurance agency in late 1907. It was a terrible fit from the start, with Kafka forced
to work a tiring schedule that left little time for his writing.
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He lasted at the agency a little less than a year. After turning in his resignation he
quickly found a new job with the Workers' Accident Insurance Institute for the
Kingdom of Bohemia.

As much as any work could, the job and his employers suited Kafka, who worked
hard and became his boss's right-hand man. Kafka remained with the company
until 1917, when a bout with tuberculosis forced him to take a sick leave and to
eventually retire in 1922.

Love and Health and beath

At work Kafka was a popular employee, easy to socialize with and
seen as somebody with a good sense of humor. But his personal life still raged with
complications. His inhibitions and insecurities plagued his relationships. Twice he
was engaged to marry his girlfriend, Felice Bauer, before the two finally went their
separate ways in 1917.

Later, Kafka later fell in love with Dora Dymant (Diamant), who shared his Jewish
roots and a preference for socialism. Amidst Kafka's increasingly dire health, the
two fell in love and lived together in Berlin. Their relationship largely centered on
Kafka's illnesses. For many years, even before he contracted tuberculosis, Kafka
had not been well. Constantly strained and stressed, he suffered from migraines,
boils, depression, anxiety and insomnia.

Kafka and Dora eventually returned to Prague. In an attempt to overcome his

tuberculosis, Kafka traveled to Vienna for treatment at a sanatorium. He died in
Kierling, Austria, on June 3, 1924. He was buried beside his parents in Prague's
New Jewish Cemetery in Olsanske.

kafka’s literary work

While Kafka strove to earn a living, he also poured himself into his writing work. An
old friend named Max Brod would prove crucial in supporting Kafka's literary work
both during his life and long after it.

Kafka's celebrity as a writer only came after his death. During his lifetime, he
published just a sliver of his overall work.

His most popular and best-selling short story, "The Metamorphosis," was completed
in 1912 and published in 1915. The story was written from Kafka's third-floor room,
which offered a direct view of the Vltava River and its toll bridge.
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Kafka followed up "The Metamorphosis" with Mediation, a collection of short stories,

in 1913, and "Before the Law," a parable within his novel The Trial, written between
1914 and 1915.

Even with his worsening health, Kafka continued to write. In 1916 he completed
"The Judgment," which spoke directly about the relationship he shared with his
father. Later works included "In the Penal Colony" and "A Country Doctor," both
finished in 1919.

Legacy
Incredibly, at the time of his death Kafka's name was known only to small group of
readers. It was only after he died and Max Brod went against the demands of his
friend that Kafka and his work gained fame. His books garnered favor during World
War II, especially, and greatly influenced German literature.

As the 1960s took shape and Eastern Europe was under the fist of bureaucratic
Communist governments, Kafka's writing resonated particularly strongly with
readers. So alive and vibrant were the tales that Kafka spun about man and
faceless organizations that a new term was introduced into the English lexicon:
"Kafkaesque."

The measure of Kafka's appeal and value as a writer was quantified in 1988, when
his handwritten manuscript of The Trial was sold at auction for $1.98 million, at
that point the highest price ever paid for a modern manuscript.

The buyer, a West German book dealer, gushed after his purchase was finalized.
"This is perhaps the most important work in 20th-century German literature," he
said, "and Germany had to have it."

It was Kafka’s friend Max Brod who’s responsible for his great success in literature.
And he was also his biggest supporter of writing throughout his life.

Major themes of kafka’s writing

His major themes are;

 Social Isolation
 Existential anxiety
 Sense of Guilt
 Alienation/loneliness
 Calm Reaction
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 Loss of Identity
 Family Responsibility
 Absurdity of life

His work is mostly autobiographical and represents all his natural emotions.

style of kafka’s writing

His style of writing has created such as an impact that his style got a special tag
which is known as “Kafkaesque”.
The term ‘Kafkaesque’ as a style is seen by many as a synonymy
for “Surreal”.
 His stories are strikingly strange, symbolizing the weirdness and signifying
absurdity of life. He delves deep into the psychology layers of the character
and characterizes the bizarre side of one’s imagination & thinking. He
sumptuously enjoyed playing with metaphors and his expression was
intrinsically metaphorical in articulation. Though his points were simple and
straight to the point but he was always weaving a web of complexity and that
was inherently critical to decipher.

 Franz Kafka created fictional worlds in which characters try to make sense of
a nightmarish world. Kafka’s writing style seems simple and straightforward,
but it’s full of philosophizing about the absurdity of life.

 In his fiction, Kafka was able to evoke a sense of the bewildering

oppressiveness of modern life:

His characters constantly face failure and futility, and they struggle to survive in a
world that is largely unfeeling and unfamiliar. 

“Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't
edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your
most intense obsessions mercilessly.”
― Franz Kafka.