Franz Kafka

Introduction & Top Questions
Life
- Kafka and his father
- Kafka’s double life
Works

Quotes References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Portrait of Austrian writer Franz Kafka as a young man around 1910, wearing a suit and tie, looking directly at the camera.

At a Glance

Franz Kafka summary

Quizzes

Books. Reading. Publishing. Print. Literature. Literacy. Rows of used books for sale on a table.

A Study of Writers

Nobel prize-winning American author, Pearl S. Buck, at her home, Green Hills Farm, near Perkasie, Pennsylvania, 1962. (Pearl Buck)

Novels and Novelists Quiz

Related Questions

How did Expressionism influence Franz Kafka’s writing?
How did Franz Kafka portray torture and obedience in In the Penal Colony?
How did Franz Kafka use limited third-person narration in The Judgment?
How did tuberculosis shape Franz Kafka’s later life?
How does Franz Kafka portray authority and bureaucracy in his fiction?
How does Franz Kafka’s use of limited narration affect readers’ understanding of his protagonists?
How does Gregor Samsa’s family respond to his transformation in The Metamorphosis?
How does alienation appear in Franz Kafka’s stories and novels?
How have readers interpreted social criticism in Franz Kafka’s stories and novels?
What did Franz Kafka describe in his Letter to Father?
What ending did Max Brod say Franz Kafka planned for The Castle?
What happens to Joseph K. at the beginning of The Trial?
What happens to Joseph K. at the end of The Trial?
What theme connects In the Penal Colony and A Hunger Artist?
What themes appear most often in Franz Kafka’s fiction?
When and where was Franz Kafka born?
When did Franz Kafka receive his doctorate in law?
When was The Metamorphosis first published?
Where did Franz Kafka die and what caused his death?
Where did Franz Kafka live with Dora Dymant in 1923?
Where did Franz Kafka study law?
Which major Franz Kafka novels did Max Brod publish after Kafka’s death?
Who is Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis?
Who was Felice Bauer and how did she influence Franz Kafka’s life?
Who was Max Brod and how did he become Franz Kafka’s closest friend?
Who were Milena Jesenská Pollak and Dora Dymant in Franz Kafka’s life?
Why are Franz Kafka’s characters often unable to understand the forces controlling their lives?
Why can Franz Kafka’s works support many different interpretations?
Why did Franz Kafka and Felice Bauer end their engagements?
Why did Franz Kafka write in German despite being born in Prague?
Why has The Trial been seen as an anticipation of totalitarianism?
Why is the adjective Kafkaesque used to describe bizarre bureaucratic situations?
Why were Franz Kafka’s novels The Trial and The Castle published unfinished?
What kind of relationship did Franz Kafka have with his father?
What was Franz Kafka’s life like?
What did Franz Kafka write?
What is George Sand best known for?
What was George Sand’s early life like?
What are some of Jamaica Kincaid’s notable works?
What is Roxane Gay known for?
What is Rudyard Kipling known for?
How did Rudyard Kipling become famous?
Why is Sylvia Plath important?

Literature Novels & Short Stories Novelists A-K

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External Websites

Bohemian-Saxon Literary landscape - Franz Kafka
ABC listen - Encounter - Franz Kafka
The Guardian - Where to start with: Franz Kafka
Lehigh University - College of Arts and Sciences - Through the Eyes of Franz Kafka
National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Franz Kafka (1883-1924)
Pressbooks via Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project - Modern World Literature: Compact Edition - Franz Kafka
Official Site of Franz Kafka Museum
The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe - Franz Kafka
Journal of English Language and Literature - A Study of the Elements of Existentialism and Absurdism in Franz Kafka's Works (PDF)
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction - Franz Kafka

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Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Franz Kafka - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Franz Kafka

German-language writer

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History

Franz Kafka (born July 3, 1883, Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now in Czech Republic]—died June 3, 1924, Kierling, near Vienna, Austria) was a German-language writer of visionary fiction whose works—especially the novel Der Prozess (1925; The Trial) and the story Die Verwandlung (1915; The Metamorphosis)—express the anxieties and alienation felt by many in 20th-century Europe and North America. Franz Kafka, the son of Julie Löwy and Hermann Kafka, a merchant, was born into a prosperous middle-class...

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