Franz Kafka (1883–1924) was one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century; W. H. Auden called him a modern-day Dante. The word Kafkaesque entered the English language as shorthand for the disorientation and senselessness that Kafka so artfully detailed in works such as The Trial, The Metamorphosis, and The Castle. Born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, his complicated relationship with his father deeply influenced his writing. Nearly a decade after his death, Kafka’s notebooks and letters were confiscated by the Gestapo—scholars search for them still.
WORKS THAT HAVE APPEARED IN NARRATIVE:
- A Country Doctor, a short story, in Stories of the Week: 2015–2016
- The Blue Octavo Notebooks, a review or criticism, in Spring 2012