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| − | '''Frank Kafka''' (July 3, 1883 – June 3, 1924) was an German [[author]] and [[attorney]] who wrote several classic stories illustrating how humans are alienated from a hostile, unintelligible, and indifferent modern world. Most of his stories involve the protagonists being caught in a nightmarish situation that they can not hope to resolve or escape from.<ref>The New American Desk Encyclopedia, Penguin Group, 1989</ref> | + | '''Franz Kafka''' (July 3, 1883 – June 3, 1924) was a [[Bohemia]]n [[author]] (writing in [[German]]) and [[attorney]] who wrote [[short story|short stories]] and [[novel]]s illustrating how humans are alienated from a hostile, unintelligible and indifferent modern world. Most of his fiction involves protagonists caught in a nightmarish situation that they cannot hope to resolve or escape from.<ref>The New American Desk Encyclopedia, Penguin Group, 1989</ref> |
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| − | A friend ([[Max Brod]]) ignored Kafka's request to burn his writings with his death, and instead had them published. Several of his works became classics after Kafka died, including ''[[The Trial]]'' (1925) and ''[[The Castle]]'' (1926). In ''The Trial'', an innocent man finds himself a defendant in a trial that he cannot understand, and he is sentenced to [[death]] for a crime he didn’t do. Kafka’s most famous short story was "[[The Metamorphosis]]" (1915), in which the narrator (Gregor Samsa) awakens to realize that he has been transformed into a monstrous [[vermin]] (often interpreted to be an [[insect]]). Through the course of the story, Gregor suffers an injury that ultimately becomes fatal.
| + | His friend [[Max Brod]] ignored Kafka's request to burn his writings at his death and instead had them published. Several of his works became classics after Kafka died, including ''[[The Trial]]'' (1925) and ''[[The Castle]]'' (1926). In ''The Trial'', an innocent man finds himself a defendant in a trial that he cannot understand, and he is sentenced to [[death]] for a crime he did not commit. Kafka’s most famous short story was "[[The Metamorphosis]]" (1915), in which the narrator Gregor Samsa awakens to find that he has been transformed into a monstrous [[vermin]] (often interpreted to be an [[insect]]). Through the course of the story, Gregor suffers an injury that ultimately becomes fatal. |
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| − | Throughout Kafka’s works he expressed and sympathized with the feeling of being an outsider. Kafka didn't place much emphasis on formal [[religion]], though never rebuked entirely his [[Jewish]] heritage. Indeed, many of the ethical dilemmas found in his works reflect his intellectual fondness for rabbinical [[rhetoric]]. Franz Kafka passed away at age 40 due to complications surrounding the onset of [[tuberculosis]]. His body lies in the New Jewish Cemetery in Prague-Žižkov. | + | Throughout Kafka’s works he expressed and sympathized with the feeling of being an outsider. Kafka didn't place much emphasis on formal [[religion]], though never rebuked entirely his [[Jewish]] heritage. Indeed, many of the ethical dilemmas found in his works reflect his intellectual fondness for rabbinical [[rhetoric]]. Franz Kafka passed away at age 40 due to complications surrounding the onset of [[tuberculosis]]. His body lies in the New Jewish Cemetery in [[Prague]]-Žižkov. |
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| | == See also == | | == See also == |