Franz Kafka

Background, style, and The

Metamorphosis
Biography
 Born July 3, 1883 in
Prague, Austria-Hungary
(now the Czech
Republic).
 Was the eldest of six
children born to a middle-
class family in Bohemia.
 The children, including
Franz, were primarily
raised by governesses,
as both parents worked
late hours.
Biography
 Was educated at the
German Charles-
Ferdinand University in
Prague.
 Initially studied
chemistry, but switched
to law two weeks later.
 The switch pleased
Kafka, because it
allowed him a wider
breadth of studies.
 Graduated with a Doctor
of Law degree.
Biography
 After university, Kafka
worked a series of jobs,
including a year of unpaid
legal work, at an Italian
insurance company, and
as a governmental worker
in the Worker’s Accident
Insurance Institute for
the Kingdom of Bohemia.
 Despite Kafka’s
indifference to his jobs,
he was promoted several
times.
Biography
 Suffered from a number
of ailments during the
course of his life,
including tuberculosis,
clinical depression,
social anxiety disorder,
migraines, insomnia, and
other stress-related
disorders.
 His tuberculosis
worsened, requiring his
committal to a
sanitorium in Vienna.
Biography
 At the sanitorium, his
tuberculosis worsened to
the point where he could
not eat due to the pain.
 He is believed to have
died of starvation on
June 3, 1924.
 His fate, ironically,
mirrors that of Gregor in
The Meta-morphosis and
his protagonist in The
Hunger Artist.
Style
 Translations of Kafka’s  In addition, he
work can be difficult due frequently uses diction
to an syntactical
idiosyncrasy of the
that, in the original
German language; the German, has multiple
sentences will often span meanings, allowing for
paragraphs, even pages, the layering of meaning
delivering the impact at within a sentence.
the end of the sentence.
These layers can be
 The first sentence of The
lost in English.
Metamorphosis is an
example of this difficulty.
Style
 Stylistically, Kafka’s  His influences include
work shows the Soren Kierkegaard,
Fyodor Dostoevsky,
influence of a number of
Charles Dickens, and
schools of philosophical
Friedrich Nietzsche.
thought, primarily
 Has influenced many
existentialism. Kafka’s notable authors and
work is also considered artists, including Vladimir
modernist, absurdist, Nabokov, Gabriel
and a precursor for the Marquez, Jorge Borges,
style “magical realism.” Haruki Murakami, Jhonen
Vasquez, and David
Lynch.
Existentialism
 Existentialism is a
philosophy. Its adherents
believe that individuals
create the meaning in
their lives.
 Existentialism is generally
atheistic, believing that
the individual is entirely
free from any external
forces (ie: gods, deities),
making him or her
responsible for the events
of his or her life.
 It is only through this
self-determination that
we can rise above the
absurd conditions of
humanity, such as
suffering and death.
 Existentialists believe
that the “meaning”
humans seek in life is
ultimately unknowable.
Existentialism
 Existentialism is therefore
opposed to philosophies
such as rationalism and
empiricism, which
attempt to discover an
order in the structure of
the universe.
 It reverses the theistic
viewpoint that essence
precedes existence; our
existence precedes our
essence, and we decide
our own reality
 Popular existential topics
include “dread”,
“boredom”, “alienation”,
“the absurd”, “freedom”,
“commitment”, and
“nothingness”.
 The absurd, in particular,
is important to surrealism.
The universe, to
existentialists, is
indifferent, objective, and
ambiguous; there is no
order save what we
peceive and interpret.
Existentialism
 Albert Camus, a famous
French existentialist,
penned an essay, “The
Myth of Sisyphus”, to
suggest existentialist
thought.
 Sisyphus is a character in
Greek mythology.
Sisyphus was cursed to roll
a huge boulder up a hill.
Whenever he completed
his task, it would roll down
again; he repeated this
task for eternity.
 Another important tenet
of existentialism is
Nietzsche’s
proclamation that “God
is dead.” In
existentialist thought,
since humanity is
responsible for its
destiny and dissociated
from outside forces,
there is no need for God;
He is obsolete.
Surrealism
 Surrealism develops
parallel to Kafka’s writing.
 Kafka’s writing shows
evidence of many
concepts and stylistic
elements important to
surrealism.
 Surrealism is an art of
surprise, unexpected
juxtapositions, and non
sequiturs, encompassing
sub-cultural expressions
such as Dada.
Surrealism
 The surrealists defined their
movement in their manifesto:
“Psychic automatism in its
pure state, by which one
proposes to express --
verbally, by means of the
written word, or in any other
manner -- the actual
functioning of thought.
Dictated by the thought, in the
absence of any control
exercised by reason, exempt
from any aesthetic or moral
concern.”
Dada
 Surrealism was heavily
influenced by Dada, a
post-war movement
positing that bourgeois,
middle-class values
(including art) were
responsible for the war.
 Dada “art” would be
better described as “anti-
art”, evidencing the non-
linear, haphazard
sensibility that would
define surrealism.
Surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism
Modernism
 Modernism was a
movement that opposed
traditional views of art.
 Modernist artists hoped
to discover and surmount
that which was “holding
back” artistic
expression.
 Like surrealism and
Dada, it was a reaction
against the wars in
Europe which ravaged
the continent.
Modernism
 The ideas of Darwin and
Marx are two examples
of disruptive modernist
thought that would
permeate the literature
and art of the movement.
 The Eiffel Tower was
modernist architecture,
breaking the traditional
views of height and style.
Modernism
 Modernist authors  Other important figures
include Joseph Conrad, in modernism include
T. S. Eliot, William Albert Einstein (The
Faulkner, James Joyce,
Theory of Relativity),
Kafka, Ezra Pound,
Carl Jung (the collective
Marcel Proust, Gertrude
Stein, William Carlos unconscious), Sigmund
Williams, Virginia Woolf, Freud (psycho-analysis)
and William Butler Yeats. and Bertolt Brecht (epic
 Modernist literature theater).
breaks norms, often  Modernism explodes
integrating psychological during and after the
themes. World Wars.
The Metamorphosis
 The ambiguity of Kafka’s prose has led to innumerable
interpretations of the novella. Freudians, Symbolists,
Marxists, Absurdists, Surrealists; for ever “-ist” and “-ian”,
there is an interpretation.
 The structure of the story is straightforward; it begins with
the climax, and, in many senses, consists entirely of
denoument and resolution.
 There are heavy autobiographical elements contained within
the novella. For example, Kafka’s relationship with his
father is evident in Gregor’s; Gregor’s hideous
transformation represents Kafka’s insecurity with his
appearance; the menial existence of a traveling salesman
his father lived; the absurdity of existence evident in Kafka’s
existentialist views.