Being Kafka

Why do we continue to find Franz Kafka so compelling 100 years after his death? Why is Kafka still considered to be so modern and contemporary? What awaits us in Kafka’s anniversary year of 2024? Reiner Stach, Kafka’s most important biographer, provides us with some answers.

The influences of Franz Kafka extend beyond literature and find resonance worldwide in visual arts, film and architecture. Let’s have a look at the Indian art scene.

Franz Kafka came up with such beautiful language in all his novels and short stories that readers instantly form the most magnificent images in their minds while enjoying the books. Roberto Maján has captured these pictures on paper for you. 

When someone mentions Franz Kafka, it inevitably triggers associations. Illustrator Kitty Kahane has taken these word for word and created pictures from them. – We invite you on a tour of the Kafka cosmos!

Nicolas Mahler is a comic illustrator whose book “Komplett Kafka” (Completely Kafka) is published in Kafka’s centenary year, and it will tour as an exhibition. Ulrich Fügener spoke with Nicolas Mahler – about comics, Kafka, humour and melancholy.

Franz Kafka was himself a good illustrator and would surely have enjoyed these comics and graphic novels that were created by comic book artists from different parts of the world and all have one thing in common: the subject of Kafka.
 

Rosy Singh is professor of German literature in India. In this interview, Rosy tells us about the challenges of translating Kafka’s work, about his reception in India and about her passion for texts that are just 15 lines long.
 

Individual authors can characterise a style concept. But what exactly does it mean to have a style, and why has the name Kafka entered the vernacular like no other? A look at art and philosophy. 

Writer and director Anmol Vellani’s Innocence, a play based on Kafka’s The Trial, suggests that India has become more Kafkaesque in recent times. He wonders, however, whether the demands of drama and the Indian setting have made it harder for the play to replicate the darkness, dread and disorientation that Kafka’s prose evokes.

The question of whom Franz Kafka belongs to occupies many minds more persistently than is perhaps necessary.

Franz Kafka was only 40 years old in the spring of 1924 when he was admitted to a private clinic in Kierling, just outside of Vienna. The building has not changed, except for its relationship to world literature.

Exploring Prague in Kafka’s footsteps: where did Franz Kafka live and work, where did he spend his leisure time? A photo tour.

In a subsection of the University of Vienna website, all of Franz Kafka’s journals and letters are freely accessible and searchable. The person behind the website is Werner Haas, librarian at the University of Vienna. 
 

In her booktube video series Marie-Pierre Poulin, librarian at the Goethe-Institut Montréal, presents the timeless classics “The Metamorphosis” and “The Trial” by Franz Kafka. Enjoy!
 

Classics don’t have to be boring, thought Michael Sommer to himself, and started the Youtube channel “Sommer’s World Literature to go”. He presents a weekly work of world literature on his channel, posed with his Playmobil cast – including the works of Franz Kafka.

At the beginning of the 20th century, cinema was new and sensational – Franz Kafka was fascinated by it. There are numerous mentions of what Kafka had seen at the movies.

The Czech writer died nearly a century ago, but is enjoying a renaissance on TikTok and X.

What do Kafka and fashion have in common? A feeling of always arriving too late. We chase after fashion and can escape it only to a limited degree. In a way, we are at its mercy. Because no matter how we dress or don’t dress, our outward appearance always says something about us.

Most people know Franz Kafka as a brilliant author. However, what many Kafka buffs don’t know: Kafka was a thoroughly physical person, Kafka was not just sporty, he was an all-out sports enthusiast.

Be it his weight, health, father complex or doubting his own literary talent: Kafka had numerous “issues”. Could he be described as a “drama queen” in today’s vocabulary?

In 1916 Franz Kafka wrote on a postcard “I’m getting fat!” and listed all the foods he’d been feasting on. Over a hundred years later, artist Alex Braden in St. Louis, Missouri, reads this and recreates Franz Kafka’s menu. What does it look like? See for yourselves! Have fun with the “I’m getting fat” photo series – enjoy your meals!

Kafka is a writer of dark, nightmarish tales? – Perhaps, yes. But this is too superficial a view. Let us embark on a quest for the comical in Kafka.

Franz Kafka’s complicated relationship with his sexuality has been a topic of constant speculation and analysis. We have reviewed his letters and experts’ opinions to try to clarify things.

Not only was Franz Kafka a writer. He also had to work at an office to make ends meet. And he wasn’t the only one. Here are ten examples of creative minds with monotonous, absurd jobs.