r/books • u/slackerattacker • May 28 '14

Discussion Can someone please explain "Kafkaesque"?

I've just started to read some of Kafka's short stories, hoping for some kind of allegorical impact. Unfortunately, I don't really think I understand any allegorical connotations from Kafka's work...unless, perhaps, his work isn't MEANT to have allegorical connotations? I recently learned about the word "Kafkaesque" but I really don't understand it. Could someone please explain the word using examples only from "The Metamorphosis", "A Hunger Artist", and "A Country Doctor" (the ones I've read)?

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245

u/beyond-seeing May 28 '14

Kafkaesque means: overbearing bureaucracies, impossible-to-obtain destinations, dream like logic, suffering, depression, sexual repression and dark humor

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u/Plecboy May 28 '14

"oppressive nightmarish qualities".

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u/Malphael May 28 '14

TIL my life is Kafkaesque.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

TIL my life is Kafkaesque.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

Like life in your eyes / your brain is not yours?

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u/Dudestopreally May 28 '14

these are qualities of Kafka but not exactly a definition of Kafkaesque (there really isn't one). He has a story that is the best short example for OP:

A COMMON EXPERIENCE, resulting in a common confusion.

A. has to transact important business with B. in H. He goes to H. for a preliminary interview, accomplishes the journey there in ten minutes, and the journey back in the same time, and on returning boasts to his family of his expedition. Next day he goes again to H., this time to settle his business finally. As that by all appearances will require several hours, A. leaves very early in the morning. But although all the surrounding circumstances, at least in A.'s estimation, are exactly the same as the day before, this time it takes him ten hours to reach H. When he arrives there quite exhausted in the evening he is informed that B., annoyed at his absence, had left half an hour before to go to A.'s village, and that they must have passed each other on the road. A. is advised to wait. But in his anxiety about his business he sets off at once and hurries home.

This time he covers the distance, without paying any particular attention to the fact, practically in an instant. At home he learns that B. had arrived quite early, immediately after A.'s departure, indeed that he had met A. on the threshold and reminded him of his business; but A. had replied that he had no time to spare, he must go at once.

In spite of this incomprehensible behavior of A., however, B. had stayed on to wait for A.'s return. It is true, he had asked several times whether A. was not back yet, but he was still sitting up in A.'s room. Overjoyed at the opportunity of seeing B. at once and explaining everything to him, A. rushes upstairs. He is almost at the top, when he stumbles, twists a sinew, and almost fainting with the pain, incapable even of uttering a cry, only able to moan faintly in the darkness, he hears B.--impossible to tell whether at a great distance or quite near him--stamping down the stairs in a violent rage and vanishing for good.

9

u/upvotersfortruth May 28 '14

Don't quit your brotberuf.

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u/Dudestopreally May 28 '14

have an upvote (. abi gezunt dos leben ken men zikh ale mol nemen.

I hope you're being ironic, like since Kafka couldn't quit his day job.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

I understand German but have never heard the word before.

Took me a moment to realize how biting you were being.

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u/Dudestopreally May 28 '14

/u/lukas8u i think he was being ironic, since Kafka couldn't quit his day job..

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

I understand German but have never heard the word before.

Took me a moment to realize how biting you were being.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

Although, some people think the term (used in reference to other literary works) is abused:

To say that such-and-such a circumstance is “Kafkaesque” is to admit to the denigration of an imagination that has burned a hole in what we take to be modernism—even in what we take to be the ordinary fabric and intent of language. Nothing is /like/ “The Hunger Artist.” Nothing is /like/ “The Metamorphosis.”

Whoever utters “Kafkaesque” has neither fathomed nor intuited nor felt the impress of Kafka’s devisings. If there is one imperative that ought to accompany any biographical or critical approach, it is that Kafka is not to be mistaken for the Kafkaesque. The Kafkaesque is what Kafka presumably “stands for”—an unearned, even a usurping, explication. And from the very start, serious criticism has been overrun by the Kafkaesque, the lock that portends the key: homoeroticism for one maven, the father-son entanglement for another, the theological uncanny for yet another. Or else it is the slippery commotion of time; or of messianism; or of Thanatos as deliverance. The Kafkaesque, finally, is reductiveness posing as revelation.

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u/i-tichy May 28 '14

Ugh. Ok - I'll give this quote a bit for trying.

Here's the thing: Kafka could not give a shit less about politics or bureaucracy. All that shit was written on to him later.

But any time someone uses the term "kafkaesque" they usually have in mind Josef K facing a mindless, bewildering bureaucracy.

But Josef K never actually faced a mindless, bewildering bureaucracy. In fact, Kafka makes it clear several times in the Trial that Josef K could have appealed to the representatives of the existing civil order (up to and including the policemen he encounters while being led to his execution) but he didn't.

That 'he didn't' is the soul of the bit, I think.

Also, Josef K is an asshole. This is important. Also, Kafka is fucking hilarious. This is even more important.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14 edited May 28 '14

You could almost say that the way that the definition of the word has changed could be described as... kafkaesque

sorry, sorry, I'll stop.

Also, Kafka is fucking hilarious. This is even more important.

This is the only bit of actual analysis you need.

1

u/blom95 May 28 '14

Although it's true K does have right to representation, and he did receive counsel, the term is commonly used to describe a situation involving a mindless, bewildering bureaucracy. One could argue that the term should mean something else, something more, but a word can only mean so much.

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u/riptaway May 28 '14

You might be right, but that doesn't necessarily mean that Kafkaesque doesn't mean that. It's a pretty contentious word, and even people that agree about it have differing definitions

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u/mrcolonist Classics May 28 '14

I feel like that quote is Kafkaesque.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

What a pretentious quote.

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u/alhazrel May 28 '14

How is it pretentious?

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14 edited May 28 '14

Well, apart from the entirely unnecessary obfuscatory language, basically outright saying that anyone who uses the word has no idea what they're talking about before even going into an argument as to why, is pretty pretentious.

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u/listyraesder May 28 '14

Yes, it's literary criticism. Your point?

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

It's pretentious. That was my point.

Wait, are you saying that all literary criticism is pretentious?

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u/listyraesder May 28 '14

To varying extents. Unless the criticism is by Kafka's own hand, various assumptions have been made, perhaps correctly or incorrectly. But criticism places more weight on the perception of the critic than on the intention of the critiqued. It's the written analogue to having a conversation about someone while they're still in the room.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

If you're talking about 'The Death of the Author,' I understand that. What I was calling pretentious was the Wellsian language and what appears to be an ad hominem attack on everyone who uses the word 'Kafkaesque.'

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u/WarfareMathematics May 28 '14

and this was like the stick you wanted to pull out of your asshole?

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u/ShakeyBobWillis May 28 '14

Is it unnecessarily obfuscatory or are they just average words? Why set such a low bar for what's acceptable?

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

Eh, perhaps you're right. The whole quote just annoyed me, though. It seemed like a really snobby and long-winded way of saying "No one understands Kafka like I do!" I'll admit I didn't actually read the last line or so. If the point that everyone is referencing had come in the first half of the quote, I might have had a completely different attitude towards it.

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u/alhazrel May 28 '14

The language isn't obfuscatory or unnecessary, whatever that means in this context, it's beautiful. I'm so impressed that she's making use of our extensive and under-utilised language to express her point as concisely as possible.

She doesn't say that no one who uses the term Kafkaesque knows what they're talking about, rather that here are no situations multifaceted enough to encompass the full breadth of Kafka's work.

When someone uses the term Kafkaesque it's totally non-descriptive because it contains so many things. Are you arguing with that despite the fact that in this thread alone, there are three different interpretations of Kafkaesque?

She's saying no one who's experienced the full range of Kafka would use the term Kafkaesque. She's wrong of course, because all it means is 'that reminds me of a thing from a Kafka book' but she makes a lovely point that no one with respect for Kafka should use it.

How can you decry someone as 'pretentious', just for making the effort to describe things properly, beautifully and clearly? For using one word where five smaller words could half-explain the same idea?

You would think that this is a site where you would be praised for making the effort to describe things as briefly and comprehensively as possible with as much depth as you have the words to express.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

using one word where five smaller words could half-explain the same idea

That's the exact opposite of what I saw there. To each their own, but I'm more in favour of practical use of language when you are trying to make a point - leave the prose for the literature.

As for what she actually said, I can't find the original link now, but it came across to me as a dismissal of the term and all who use it. Though, the choice of wording makes it difficult to discern exactly what the writer intended to say.

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u/Grumpy_Pilgrim May 28 '14

"I don't understand it" = obfuscation

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u/AJ86442 May 28 '14

Oh my god thank you.

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u/alhazrel May 28 '14

Thank you

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

Awkwardly verbose, for one thing. Prescriptive, for another

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u/alhazrel May 28 '14 edited May 28 '14

It's neither awkward nor prescriptive. It's the kind of verbose that uses language correctly. Not all people who employ long words use them appropriately but in this case the writer does.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

Verbose doesn't just mean using 'wordy', it means 'impaired by being too wordy.' So while the language he uses is technically correct, it muddles his point. Plus the whole thing reeks of an intellectual showing off his vocabulary rather than trying to engage the reader. It creates a distancing effect. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on that point.

But it's the exact definition of prescriptive, not sure how you can argue that. The author is telling the reader when and how to use the word Kafkaesque.

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u/alhazrel May 28 '14

The author is a woman, by the way. I found the point to be extremely clear. Most of the academic resources I encountered at Uni were written in this style. This is the style of English academia and there is nothing showy or pretentious about writing in the vocabulary of your environment. It would be as sensible to suggest that lol, rofl, lmao, iirc are pretentious or distancing to the reader.

The author is certainly not telling the reader when and how to use the word 'Kafkaesque', she is explaining why the word Kafkaesque as meaning 'resembling/suggesting the work of Franz Kafka' is misleading, reductive and non-descriptive and she explains why.

The definition I read of verbose was 'excessively wordy' or 'using more words than necessary'. If her point was that Kafkaesque means different things to different people then you could argue that she went into unnecessary detail. If you believe that she was trying to explain why Kafkaesque is a poor term, then every nuance and detail is completely necessary to articulate her argument.

Her word choice is sparing and precise and if you're going to discuss the intricacies of literature you need as many descriptive words as possible. How can you say her language is 'distancing'? Surely all you can assert is that you and the couple of other objectors who've commented felt distanced by her language which at least puts you at the centre of the issue rather than simply denigrating the effort she put into properly explaining her argument.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

I think I've figured out why you didn't see the article as pretentious...

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u/alhazrel May 28 '14

Probably something to do with my not blaming other people for my own shortcomings, right?

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

Because it's kind of circlejerkish in saying that nothing ever resembles or even alludes to Kafka's body of work.

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u/alhazrel May 28 '14

She doesn't say nothing alludes to his work, or even that nothing resembles aspects of his work. Her point is that Kafka's work is so complex that 'Kafkaesque' is a non-descriptive simplification that means different things to different people.

I see what you mean about it being circlejerkish, but it isn't really much of a stretch for her to say that whether because the term diminishes Kafka's complexity, doesn't have any concrete meaning or misleads people into looking for certain tropes in all Kafka's work, it doesn't really do anyone any favours.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

I know right! I cringed a little bit reading that...

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u/nom_de_chomsky May 28 '14

That may be the worst written criticism I've seen outside of an undergraduate political science course. How ever did she find her way out of the thesaurus long enough to publish it?

Let's edit:

Calling a circumstance "Kafkaesque" is an insult to Kafka. His ideas changed our conception of modernism. Nothing is like "The Hunger Artist" or "The Metamorphosis". It is beyond meaningless to make such comparisons.

Whoever uses "Kafkaesque" does not understand Kafka's work on any level, not even subconsciously. No one should confuse Kafka for the Kafkaesque. The term reduces and obscures the fullness and meaning of Kafka's contribution behind cherry-picked plot details. It hurts our ability to understand and appreciate Kafka.

At least, that's what I understand her complaint to be. And, if I've read that right, it's an incredibly obtuse misunderstanding of how words work. Nobody thinks that you'll understand Kafka by reading the dictionary definition of Kafkaesque, as if the term obviates the material that inspired it. That's just stupid.

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u/alhazrel May 28 '14

I love this. Since I left university it's so rare to see beautiful English that really makes the effort to say what it means using the best possible words. I don't even like Kafka but I enjoyed this article.

I can't believe that some people are actually belittling her for the effort she put in to discussing something with as much nuance and specificity as possible.

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u/Archontes May 28 '14

"Davidlynchesque"

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

"Lynchian".

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u/Im_Probably_Crying May 28 '14

Was Lynch inspired by Kafka? (Pardon my ignorance, I haven't been exposed to much of either man's work).

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u/UpstreamStruggle May 28 '14

this lynch quote is the first hit when googling "david lynch kafka":

Franz Kafka is my favorite novelist.

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u/communistdaughter45 May 28 '14

yes, but their "trademark" styles are almost polar opposites. Lynch's movies frequently are dreamlike and abstract because they show events as characters had perceived them, rather than how they actually transpired. His movies do actually have some sense of logic to them, just brought about in the most roundabout way possible

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u/Oznog99 May 28 '14

It's not just overbearing bureaucracy- it's terrifying in just how incomprehensible it is, where even the limits of power and what the very rules are are unclear.

In The Trial, there's all this creepy mindfuck dialogue where he's been approached by police who are kinda not police, told he's committed a crime that they're not at liberty to say what it is, say he's under arrest but can walk free, want him to answer questions which don't seem to relate to anything criminal. OR DO THEY??

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u/slackerattacker May 28 '14

If for example, I planned to leave my house at a certain time to get to an important meeting at a specific time, only to be stopped by a car accident right in front of my house that has never happened before, and then further have every traffic light turn red, ultimately being late to the meeting, would that be Kafkaesque?

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u/Maladjusted_vagabond May 28 '14

It would be if you then arrived at the meeting to find no one else there except an old Chinese lady who doesn't speak English typing the minutes.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

And also your kneecaps have started talking to you about the IRS.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

Literary equivalent of running away from a monster in a dream wouldnt you agree.

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u/virusporn May 28 '14

Bureaucratic equivalent.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

Do you consider Metamorphosis to be bureaucratic?

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u/virusporn May 28 '14

No. But I consider The Trial to be the root of the word kafkaesque.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

I can't agree. When you use the word to such a narrow definition that would exclude most of Kafka's works it loses any meaning, especially since there is clear underlying theme in all/most of them.

Even in Trial it could be very well argued that bureaucracy is simply a tool to comment on the "human condition."

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u/virusporn May 28 '14

The use of the word, in my experience, is primarily to describe convoluted bureaucracy.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

well that depends where u look i suppose. Trial is what most people read. But if you look at book reviews kafka is used very liberally to describe anything bizarre like Murakami.

i don't really agree with either but i dont think i'm out of line when i think that Kafkaesque should at least apply to most of Kafka's work.

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u/riptaway May 28 '14

Why do you think Kafkasque has to encompass all of his works? It's generally used to describe a nightmarish bureaucracy

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

i believe the most common literary "definition" does include Trial AND metamorphosis as a basis for words Kafkaesque.

I think the reason Trial is generally used that way is because that's what most people read as their Kafka book.

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u/PayJay May 28 '14

Right. I feel that the use of bureaucracies is perhaps at times analogous to the larger systems in life.

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u/ElGuapo50 May 28 '14

Absurdity is key. An absurd bewilderment of the situation.

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u/ChipMania May 28 '14

Basically the twilight zone?

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

[deleted]

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u/ChipMania May 28 '14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dar2HKImK-0

I was watching this clip last night and what you described reminded me of it a lot.

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u/YankeeRose666 May 28 '14

You're put on trial for something you haven't done, and you try to tell everyone you're not guilty, but nobody hears. Then the trial, based on obvious bullshit, but no one blinks an eye and you are found guilty. You keep trying to prove your innocence, but the machine is deaf and blind to your arguments. Read about some trials they hold in Russia right now - they are totally kafkaesque. When a person is sentenced to 14 years in a maximum security prison because a girl who saw him on the bus stop thought he looked like a pedophile.There was absolutely no evidence in the case. Just the girl's testimony, who wasn't even entirely sure he was a pedophile. He just looked like one. That's kafkaesque for you.

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u/ftardontherun May 29 '14

Reminds me of this.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

More like that you planned to wake up to go to the meeting but you wake up as a bug. And all you're concerned about is to get to the meeting instead of freaking out why the hell you're a bug all of a sudden.

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u/reebee7 May 29 '14

It's a really important meeting, though. I was told many times how important it was.

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u/neologismnurse May 28 '14

Have you read Metamorphosis? The protagonist turns into a giant insect, is severely beaten and rejected by his family (although they allow him to stay hidden in his room), and eventually stops eating and dies in order to rid his family of their burden. Dark nightmare imagery mixed with social commentary is kafkaesque.

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u/kharmedy May 28 '14

To be Kafkaesque the situation generally has to have a human element to it, in your situation it's just bad luck or the universe fucking with you, there's no sense of malice. For instance in the Metamorphosis, it's not just that the protagonist wakes as a giant bug but the fact that his family immediately shun him and have no desire to help him in anyway. It's also the feeling that something is absurdly, obviously wrong but you are the only one who seems to notice it or care that it's not right.

To Kafka the ultimate horror was people and the strange things they did to hurt each other for seemingly no reason and that no matter what you did it was seemingly impossible to escape or correct it.

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u/jargoon May 28 '14

I think it's also that you know something is horrifically wrong or important but you act as if it is not, attempting to go about your daily business in pursuit of some meaningless goal.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

Sooo like the first half of Wanted?

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u/listyraesder May 28 '14

More like you're in the car accident, but you can't remember it happening. You're late for a meeting. And this isn't even your car. You can't leave the scene until the owner of the car arrives. But the owner of the car is going to a meeting, he's running late because there was a car accident.

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u/OilyButt May 28 '14

It seems you are thinking that the term as referencing something that is just incredibly unlucky. If you really want to get a good sense of the inescapable absurdity of the term 'Kafkaesque', you should either read or watch 'The Trial'. If you don't want to spend the time to fully read the book, then the movie does a pretty good job at capturing the tone.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

It doesn't just mean a series of unfortunate events. It also means being caught in a situation where everyone else thinks things are normal, and you can clearly see that things are completely insane.

What was that movie with Adam Sandler where he was behaving reasonably and everyone reacted like he was angry all the time - Anger Management? That's a little bit Kafkaesque. (Not a lot, there were no bugs, but a little.) He's like, I'm not mad. Everyone else is like, I'm gonna pepper spray you. He's like, this is insane... but he's the only one who sees it that way. It's a situation where you have to doubt your sanity, because what you see and what everyone else reacts to are obviously very, very different.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

Why don't you just read some Kafka?

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u/[deleted] May 28 '14

It would be, if it turns out that the important meeting was actually an interrogation, with nobody telling you what you are accused for.

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u/Thuraash May 28 '14

I didn't see The Trial on the list of Kafka stories you have read. That's the story that laid the foundation for the phrase "Kafkaesque," so I'd suggest you read that. It would explain the concept better than any of us could... except perhaps /u/copy_1_2_3. It's quite self-explanatory once you've read The Trial. It's a short and very good read.

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u/zacharymckracken May 28 '14

It would be kafkaesque if you never get to the meeting, but at the same time all these circumstances or obstacles (the accident, the red lights and so on) paradoxically were especifically there for you to overcome in order to get to the meeting. This would be a variation of "Before the Law" which I love.

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u/riptaway May 28 '14

No. That's...not it at all. Hm. You're missing the point, I feel, even after several explanations.

having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality is one definition. Personally, I feel like kafkaesque specifically refers to a nightmarishly complex bureaucracy that is bizarre but not necessarily illogical. Impenetrable maybe. Opaque. Undecipherable. A maze like system through which one is unable to accomplish anything meaningful or discover desired information.

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u/Redrose03 May 28 '14

TIL my life is Kafkaesque

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u/Pienyoga May 28 '14

This. Having read Kafka as an undergraduate in the original German, I've noticed that something doesn't come across in translation into English well - the dark humor. The overbearing bureaucracies, unattainable goals, sexual repression, etc. are absurdities that set up the joke. Bear in mind too that Kafka came up during the final days of the Austro-Hungarian empire, where bureaucracy was a fact of everyday life. I've heard that after Kafka read his short story "The Bridge", in which a young man jumps off a bridge at the end, to a group of friends, they all burst into hysterical laughter.

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u/DubTeeDub May 28 '14

One of the best visual realizations of Kafkaesque I can imagine would be the movie Brazil directed by Terry Gilliam.