Franz Kafka
His life
His work
His “issues”
Early Life
 Born July 3, 1883
 Born into a Jewish family in Prague
Early life
 Named for Emperor Franz Joseph of
Austria-Hungary
 Middle class family
 Father had a dry goods store
 Mother from wealthier family (family
involved in merchant and brewing
businesses)
Kafka’s parents
Family Life
 Had 2 male siblings - both died around
the age of 1
 Had 3 sisters
 Children raised by governesses
(common in middle and upper class
families)
 Family moved around based on
financial situation
Franz as a child
Kafka with his sisters
Kafka’s personality
 Quiet and withdrawn
 Wrote plays for sisters to act out
 Feared father
 Stuttered only in his presence
Education
 Attended German schools
 Father felt he could “get ahead”
 Studied chem for two weeks in college;
switched to law
 Met Max Brod in college
 A writer; became good friends
 1906 - earned Doctorate in Law
Career
 Worked as civil service lawyer
 Investigated claims at Workers Accident
Insurance Institute
 Traveled to Paris, Italy, Switzerland with
Brod
 Became interested in Yiddish theatre
 1911 - father made him take over family
asbestos factory
 Long hours almost drove him to suicide
Interesting facts
 Looked very young
 At 28, some thought he was only 15 or 16
 Father thought he was
strange/eccentric
 Quiet
 Vegetarian
Relationships
 During college, had many one-night stands
 Was both attracted to and repulsed by sex
 Hated the idea of bodily functions
 1912 - met Felice Bauer - fell in love
 Wrote letters to her for years
 Proposed in same letter in which he explained
why he’d be bad for her
 Engaged twice
Franz and Felice
Relationships
 The Women: Felice, Grete, Gerti,
Milena, Dora
 Never married
 Lived at home with parents for most of
his life
Writing
 Insomniac - used nights to write fiction
 Won writing prize in 1915
 Works published during his life:
 1912
 1915
 1916
 1919
 1920
- Meditation
- The Metamorphosis
- “The Judgment”
- “In the Penal Colony”
- “A Country Doctor”
Writing
 Asked literary executor (friend Max
Brod) to burn manuscripts of his novels
 Brod refused
 Published Posthumously:
 Amerika
 The Trial
 The Castle (unfinished)
Writing
 Believed a book should be “an axe to
break up the frozen sea within us”
 Used writing to survive despair from
father, job
 “By scribbling I run ahead of myself in
order to catch myself up at the
finishing post. I cannot run away from
myself.”
Writing
 Greatest literary influence - Gustave
Flaubert (Madame Bovary)
 Some say magical realism in writing
began with Kafka
 The Metamorphosis influenced Gabriel
Garcia Marquez
 Modernism, Existentialism
The Metamorphosis
 Themes of alienation and punishment
 Characterized as fantasy and
nightmare
 Inspired by his life?
 Protagonist
 Gregor Samsa
 Pronounced Zamza
 Samsa translates to “I am alone.”
The Metamorphosis
 Cover illustration
 Kafka did not want Gregor’s
“transformed” state depicted on the
cover
 Why do you think Kafka felt this way?
 Wrote to his publisher with other
suggestions
 Including doors, darkness, and light
 Yay for symbolism!
Cover Illustrations
 As you can see, many covers honor
Kafka’s wishes; however, some more
recent editions do not.
Later years & Death
 Thought about going to war in WWI
 1917 - started coughing up blood -
diagnosed with tuberculosis
 Died in 1924 - cause of death thought
to be starvation - difficult for him to
eat because of condition of throat
Family
 Parents died in 1930s
 Buried in same plot as Franz
 Sisters killed in the gas chambers in
WWII
Czech hero
 Statues, monuments, buildings,
postage stamps