franz Kafkaquotes

1883 - 1924

Photograph of a young Franz KafkaThe novels and short stories of German-Jewish lawyer, Franz Kafka (1883-1924), continue to awaken literary debate, and provoke new and living interpretations for each generation who reads them. Kafka’s fame arose after his death, and his writing greatly influenced German literature.

A somewhat tormented soul, who wrestled with depression, social anxiety, suicide and a tyrannical father, was nonetheless, a writer who masterfully suspended the fantastical within reality (The Judgement), and the literal within the metaphor (The Metamorphosis).

His friends found him charming and humorous, and he had neat, boyish good looks. Nonetheless, his battle with tuberculosis, and a deep fear that people found him repulsive infected his romantic relationships, and contributed to a certain self-loathing.

His literature brings us commentary on divine grace and authentic living, man’s struggle to find security (In the Penal Colony, Amerika), overcoming isolation (The Castle) and finding one’s purpose (Description of a Struggle, The Great Wall of China).

And though his parents never did understand his need to record his “dreamlike inner state,” the rest of the world can appreciate how his works transcend meaning and interpretation, always letting the reader go further into the mind, the heart, the estrangement of the modern man.

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