Franz Kafka Jewish Czechborn Writer 1883 1924 Franz

Franz Kafka Jewish Czech-born Writer 1883 -1924

Franz Kafka ► Considered to be one of the most important and influential writers in the twentieth century ► An insecure man § Believed to have suffered from clinical depression and social anxiety throughout his life § Little of his work was published during his lifetime. § Max Brod: His closest friend ► Disregarded Kafka’s instructions to destroy his unpublished manuscripts upon his death. ► Brought Kafka posthumous notoriety

Family ► Born in Prague in 1883 the son of a wealthy Jewish-Czech family. ► His father: “Huge, selfish, overbearing businessman. " ► The eldest of six children, his two brothers died before the age of six, ► His three sisters outlived him only to die in the Nazi concentration camps.

Education and Employment ►Bilingual in German and Czech, ►Studied Law at the University of Prague, graduating with Doctor of Law degree in 1906. ►First performed a year’s mandatory unpaid service as law clerk for the civil and criminal courts ►Then took a job in insurance, which he referred to as a "brotberuf", literally "bread job", a job done only to pay the bills.

These dual experiences of alienating, meaningless work and the vagaries of legal, bureaucratic power were to become core themes in his writings. Vagaries: an unpredictable or eccentric change, action, or idea

His Politics ►Interested in the contemporary anarchist movement and had attended meetings of the ‘Klub mladijich’, an anarchist group that was under police surveillance ► Known as the "colossus of silence" §He tended to sit and listen rather than contribute. ►Consequently he was not mentioned in police records or by members under interrogation Anarchist: Someone who believes that governments should be abolished as unnecessary; person who tries to overthrow a government or behaves in a lawless way

The intersection of Kafka's insecurity and his anarchist leanings is apparent in a passage from The Problem of Our Laws: “We are more inclined to hate ourselves because we have not yet shown ourselves worthy of being entrusted with the laws. And that is the real reason why the party who believe there is no law have remained so few – although their doctrine is in certain ways so attractive”

Socialist Views Evident from early on in his life ► According to his childhood friend and schoolmate - Hugo Bergmann ► To the best of my knowledge, Kafka belonged to none of the anarchist organizations but as a man exposed and sensitive to social problems, he was strongly sympathetic to them. Yet despite his interest in these meetings, given his frequent attendance, he never took part in the discussions. Socialism: A political theory or system in which the means of production and distribution are controlled by the people and operated according to equity and fairness rather than market principles

His Writing Much of his work is bleak and darkly comic ► Emphasizes the futility of individual resistance to state power ► The Trial and The Castle: Doomed efforts of protagonists ► In the Penal Colony: Lone voice of the visitor ► Exceptions: Zürau Aphorisms: ► § Visions of hope § Written while ill with tuberculosis at his sister’s house in 1917 -18, he writes: “The fact that the only world is a constructed world takes away hope and gives us certainty” (Aphorism 62)

"Kafkaesque” ► ► ► Concepts, situations, and ideas which are reminiscent of the Kafka’s literary works A senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity: Kafkaesque bureaucracies" Surreal distortion and often a sense of impending danger An intentional distortion of reality by powerful but anonymous bureaucrats. "Lack of evidence is treated as a pesky inconvenience, to be circumvented by such Kafkaesque means as depositing unproven allegations into sealed files " An existentialist state of ever-elusive freedom while existing under unmitigated (absolute and unqualified) control. Existentialism: A philosophical movement begun in the 19 th century that denies that the universe has any intrinsic meaning or purpose. It requires people to take responsibility for their own actions and shape their own destinies.

"Kafkaesque” as an Adjective ► Anything suggestive of Kafka § His nightmarish type of narration in which characters lack ►a clear course of action ►the ability to see beyond immediate events, ►the possibility of escape The term's meaning has transcended the literary realm to apply to real-life occurrences and situations that are incomprehensibly complex, bizarre, or illogical.

Anti-authoritarianism ► ► Runs through Kafka's novels Principal weapon is irony and black humor § “A supreme revolt of the spirit” § a movement toward "depersonalization" and a growing reification: from paternal and personal authority toward an administrative and anonymous authority § This attitude has intimate personal roots in Kafka's relations with his father. For the writer, the despotic authority of the pater familias is the archetype of political tyranny. In his Letter to the Father (1919), Kafka recalled that "in my eyes, you assumed an enigmatic character like a tyrant for whom the law is not based …” Reification: to think of or treat something abstract as if it existed as a real and tangible Object Enigmatic: Mysterious; unknowable

1924: Died at age 40 from complications of tuberculosis from which he suffered for years ► He left behind a body of works much informed by anarchist ideas, containing unique explorations of our existential condition when confronted by mundane work, the pettiness of landlords and the arbitrariness of state power. ►

“A first sign of a beginning to understanding is a wish to die” Diaries of Franz Kafka

“Our laws are not generally known; they are kept secret by the small group of nobles who rule us … for the laws were made to the advantage of the nobles from the very beginning, they themselves stand above the laws” (Kafka, The Problem of Our Laws)

The Metamorphosis “Why was only Gregor condemned to work for a firm where at the slightest omission they immediately suspected the worst? Were all employees louts without exception, wasn't there a single loyal, dedicated worker among them who, when he had not fully utilized a few hours of the morning for the firm, was driven half-mad by pangs of conscience and was actually unable to get out of bed? " Chapter 1