History Creator / FranzKafka

** Creator/JorgeLuisBorges" wrote on ''Foreword to "The Metamorphosis" by Creator/FranzKafka'' about the NoEnding in Kafka's novels "Amerika", "The Castle" and "The Trial",
->''"The critics deplore that in the three Kafka novels many intermediate chapters are missing, but recognizes that those chapters are not essential. I have for me that [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint this complaint indicates an essential ignorance of Kafka's art]]. The path of these "unfinished" novels is born specifically of TheInfinite number of obstacles that stop and return to stop their identical heroes.'' Franz Kafka [[NoEnding does not finish them]], because [[CentralTheme the main thing was that they]] [[TheInfinite were endless]]. ''Do you remember the first and clearest of Zeno's paradoxes? The movement is impossible, because before reaching B we must cross the intermediate point C, but before reaching C, we must cross the intermediate point D, but before reaching D ... ''The Greek does not list all the points; Franz Kafka does not have to list all the vicissitudes. It is enough to understand that they are infinite like Hell".

** "The Metamorphosis": No explanation is ever given for Gregor Samsa's transformation, he can never change back, his family grow tired of him and begin actively persecuting him, and they are relieved when [[spoiler: he finally dies]].

* {{Xenofiction}}: "Investigations of a Dog" is about the existential vexations of an ordinary dog. Interestingly, the dogs in the story have a sophisticated social structure, but seem to be completely unaware that humans exist.

He was born in Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia, [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic Austria-Hungary]] (nowadays' UsefulNotes/CzechRepublic). His unique body of writing--much of which is incomplete and was mainly published posthumously--is among the most influential in Western literature. His stories, such as ''Literature/TheMetamorphosis'' (1915), and novels, including ''Literature/TheTrial'' (1925) and ''Literature/TheCastle'' (1926), concern troubled individuals in a nightmarishly impersonal, modern, and bureaucratic world.

* MagnumOpusDissonance: Most people today who think of Kafka think of ''Literature/TheMetamorphosis'' or ''Literature/TheTrial''. Kafka never thought much of ''Literature/TheMetamorphosis'' and died wanting the incomplete manuscript for ''Literature/TheTrial'' destroyed. Instead, the only one of is works he had a kind word for was ''The Verdict'', which only the enthusiasts have heard of today.

* DownerEnding: Much of his work, if it has a finished ending at all, ends with the protagonist either dead, imprisoned, or simply no closer to finding the answers they seek. ''The Trial'', in which the protagonist is sentenced for a crime they are never made aware of, and ''The Metamorphosis'', in which Gregor Samsa dies and his family reacts with unanimous relief, are the most famous examples.

* DownerEnding: Much of his work, if it has a finished ending at all, ends with the protagonist either dead, imprisoned, or simply no closer to finding the answers they seek. ''The Trial'' in which the protagonist is sentenced for a crime they are never made aware of, and ''The Metamorphosis'', in which Gregor Samsa dies and his family reacts with unanimous relief, are the most famous examples.

* "The Metamorphosis": No explanation is ever given for Gregor Samsa's transformation, he can never change back, his family grow tired of him and begin actively persecuting him, and they are relieved when [[spoiler: he finally dies]].

* BeleagueredBureaucrat: Kafka's works are among the [[TropeCodifier Trope Codifiers]]. If a story of his has human(oid) characters at all, they will likely either be this or meet others who are. One particularly comical example is the title character of the story "Poseidon": rather than an all-powerful god of the sea, he's depicted as an exasperated middle-manager type saddled with responsibilities he's not equipped to handle.

* SliceOfLife: His collected writings contain one-page stories that don't really have a point to them, apart from [[SceneryPorn describing an interesting scene]] and [[SeinfeldianConversation observing things about it.]]

%%* OntologicalMystery: ''The Trial'' is a cynical, bureaucratic example. %% Zero Context Example

%%* ShaggyDogStory: [[ShootTheShaggyDog The dark kind.]] %% Zero Context Example
%%* ShootTheShaggyDog: Almost everything by Kafka falls into this category. %% Zero Context Example

%%* YankTheDogsChain: %% Zero Context Example

* BeleagueredBureaucrat: Kafka works are among the [[TropeCodifier Trope Codifiers]]. If a story of his has human(oid) characters at all, they will likely either be this or meet others who are. One particularly comical example is the title character of the story "Poseidon": rather than an all-powerful god of the sea, he's depicted as an exasperated middle-manager type saddled with responsibilities he's not equipped to handle.

%%* BeleagueredBureaucrat: Poseidon in the short story of the same name. The protagonists of ''The Trial'' and ''The Castle'' encounter a few, in their more upbeat moments. %% Zero Context Example
%%* BewilderingPunishment: The central point of ''The Trial''. %% Zero Context Example

%%* FishOutOfWater: Karl Rossman in America. %% Zero Context Example

%%* GrayAndGreyMorality %% Zero Context Example

%%* NoEnding: Two out of his three novels have no ending. ''The Trial'' does have an ending, but it's known that Kafka hadn't finished work on it when he died. %% Zero Context Example

* DeadArtistsAreBetter: Actually subverted by the titular character from "The Hunger Artist", who is totally forgotten after he dies during his longest fast to date.
** Not to mention Kafka himself, who was totally unknown in life and requested that all his work be destroyed shortly before his death. Only after his friend, Max Brod, collected and published the fragments he could salvage did Kafka become a household name.
** {{Subverted}} in "Josephine the Singer", though: after she, representing culture in general, dies, nobody will remember her.

Not to be confused with Creator/FrankCapra, Music/FrankZappa, or [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Kefka]]. And most certainly not [[Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei Kafuka Fuura]]. ''Film/{{Kafka}}'' is based on his works, albeit loosely.

Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was one of the major German-language fiction writers of the 20th century. His unique body of writing--much of which is incomplete and was mainly published posthumously--is among the most influential in Western literature. His stories, such as ''Literature/TheMetamorphosis'' (1915), and novels, including ''Literature/TheTrial'' (1925) and ''Literature/TheCastle'' (1926), concern troubled individuals in a nightmarishly impersonal, modern, and bureaucratic world.

* ''Literature/TheTrial'' (1925)

* AuthorsOfQuote: Kafka’s aphorisms are often reprinted, mostly as epigrams at the start of a book.

** Kafka himself of course died before attaining universal fame.

%%* DisproportionateRetribution: "The Judgement" among others. %% Zero Context Example
%%* DownerEnding: Much of his work. %% Zero Context Example

* CrapsackWorld: The late 19th-early 20th Century landscape of his stories. A time of economic stagnation, political upheaval, and ethnoreligious strife in which the common man's life is totally uprooted

%%* ClassicalAntiHero: His more detailed protagonists, almost without exception. %% Zero Context Example
%%* CrapsackWorld: The late 19th-early 20th Century landscape of his stories. %% Zero Context Examples
* DeadArtistsAreBetter: The titular character from "The Hunger Artist." Not to mention Kafka himself.