From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Kafkaesque" is an eponym used to describe concepts, situations, and ideas which are reminiscent of the literary work of Prague writer Franz Kafka, particularly his novels The Trial and The Castle, and the novella The Metamorphosis.

The term, which is quite fluid in definition, has also been described as "marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity: Kafkaesque bureaucracies"^[1] and "marked by surreal distortion and often a sense of impending danger: Kafkaesque fantasies of the impassive interrogation, the false trial, the confiscated passport ... haunt his innocence" — The New Yorker.^[2]

It can also describe 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..." Another definition would be an existentialist state of ever-elusive freedom while existing under unmitigable control.

The adjective refers to anything suggestive of Kafka, especially his nightmarish style of narration, in which characters lack a clear course of action, the ability to see beyond immediate events, and 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.

The term could also be seen as Kafka's reaction against the concept of time. Public time, to Kafka, is a nightmare; he has a broken relationship with the world; that, in essence, "the world has gone nuts." One such example is in The Trial, wherein Josef K. says of a meeting with his employer that he was summoned to go somewhere, but they forget to tell him when. He assumes to be there at nine, and arrives an hour late. The Examining Magistrate approaches him and says that Josef K. should have been there at 8:45. The next week, he shows up at 8:45, but no one is there. His heroes feel absurd when arriving early, but guilty when late.^[3]

Criticism

Max Brod, close friend and literary executor of Kafka, hated the term "Kafkaesque," arguing that it presented a picture of the man and his work contradicted by his own intimate knowledge.

See also

• List of eponyms

References

1. ^ "Kaf•ka•esque". Infoplease.com. http://www.infoplease.com/dictionary/Kafkaesque. Retrieved 2009-07-03.  
2. ^ "Kafkaesque - definition of Kafkaesque by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia". Thefreedictionary.com. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Kafkaesque. Retrieved 2009-07-03.  
3. ^ Stephen Kern, 2003, The Culture of Time & Space, 1880 -- 1918, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 16.

External links

• IMDb's list of "Kafkaesque" films

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

English

Etymology

From Kafka +‎ -esque, after writer Franz Kafka.

Adjective

Kafkaesque (comparative more Kafkaesque, superlative most Kafkaesque)

1. Marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity.

   Kafkaesque bureaucracies

2. Marked by surreal distortion and often a sense of impending danger.
3. In the manner of something written by Kafka.

Translations