Kafka

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) was a German-speaking Jewish writer born in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although he worked as an insurance clerk for most of his life, Kafka devoted himself to writing, producing works that explore themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and the crushing power of bureaucracy. His distinctive vision of a world where individuals are trapped by inexplicable, faceless forces gave rise to the term "Kafkaesque."

Kafka published little during his lifetime and instructed his friend Max Brod to burn his unpublished manuscripts after his death. Brod ignored this request, preserving works that would become classics of twentieth-century literature.

Kafka's major works include The Metamorphosis (1915), the story of Gregor Samsa, who awakens transformed into a giant insect; The Trial (1925), in which Josef K. is prosecuted by an inaccessible authority for an unnamed crime; and The Castle (1926), following a land surveyor's futile struggle to gain entry to a mysterious castle. Other notable works include In the Penal Colony, The Judgment, and A Hunger Artist. Kafka died of tuberculosis in 1924, leaving a legacy that profoundly shaped modern literature, existentialism, and absurdist fiction.