Franz Kafka

2. Franz Kafka Born in 1883 to a middle-class, German-speaking, Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic). Helped raise three younger sisters while his parents worked at his father’s business as many as 12 hours every day. Kafka had a difficult relationship with his parents, but lived with them through adulthood. Kafka developed a strong emotional dependence on his family, which would last his entire life.

3. Kafka is described as having been sensitive and suffering from feelings of isolation. His relationship with his father was competitive and strained. • Kafka’s father is described as determined, • domineering, selfish, and aggressive. • Kafka contracted tuberculosis around the age of 35 and died on June 3, 1924. • Main Ideas: • Jewish but felt unconnected to his religion • Ethnic and linguistic minority in his country • Unsuccessful in personal relationships • Physically frail and attempts to hide it

4. Kafkaesque anything having to do with alienation, absurdity, anxiety, or isolation—themes that came to characterize Kafka’s life and works

5. Existentialism • Key Points • a reaction to thecorresponding dehumanization of many aspects of society (Industrialization, rise of bureaucracy) • shifted ideals of right and wrong • focused on the individual (the individual has the power to create their own purpose, human purpose does not pre-exist its creation) • saw the world as hostile and chaotic • focused on the paradox and absurdity of existing in an uncertain and often cruel world, feeling compelled to make some sense or purpose out of one’s existence, only to have all its progress and accomplishments taken away by the equally senseless fact of death. • Life is valuable because it is finite, because the only meaning is in the individual search for meaning