One of the fascinating things about Franz Kafka is that he has a place in modern culture in addition to literary history. His name is synonymous with the concepts and themes prevalent in his books, as the widespread use of the adjective "Kafkaesque" makes clear. This familiarity with Kafka, and the temptation to relegate him to a handful of adjectives and images endures despite the fact that his works resist easy classification or interpretation.
 
Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 to German-speaking Jewish parents. He had a difficult relationship with both of them, especially his father, and the tension between father and son is a prominent theme in many of his works. As a young man, Franz's experiments with fiction were tempered by his knowledge that he needed a career that was more substantial (and acceptable to his parents) than writing. Thus he spent his adult life divided, working at an insurance company writing reports on worker safety during the day and writing fiction in the evenings.
 
Though very critical of his early work (he destroyed most of it prior to 1905) Kafka continued to write. His friend and writer Max Brod recognized Kafka's gifts and strongly encouraged him. In 1912, his first major story, "The Judgment" was completed, followed by The Metamorphosis and In The Penal Colony. Other major works include The Trial, The Castle, and A Hunger Artist. Kafka was moderately successful in Prague with an active social life, which included several relationships with women, although he never married. At his death, he left instructions for the bulk of his work to be burned, but Max Brod- perhaps solely responsible for saving Franz Kafka from obscurity-intervened and pushed for publication of his stories and letters.

Articles About Kafka, Franz

On Franz Kafka's Trail

February 4, 2007

It's no wonder people get confused about Franz Kafka's nationality. A Czech Jew who wrote in German, Kafka was a citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at birth in 1883 and a citizen of the newly minted nation of Czechoslovakia at his death in 1924. But no matter what flags were flying overhead, there was one constant: Prague. Kafka was born, raised and educated from grammar school through law school in Prague. He wrote his stories, wooed his girlfriends, suffered through his tuberculosis and spent his entire professional career as an insurance lawyer in the city...