Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque |käfkəesk|

adjective

-characteristic or reminiscent of the oppressive or nightmarish qualities of Franz Kafka's fictional world.

(New Oxford American Dictionary)

In his stories Metamorphosis and The Hunger Artist, Kafka expresses a style of writing, one that can only be described as ‘Kafkaesque’. This term is used to describe his unique style of writing, which is applicable not only to the literary world, but also to the cinematographic world, as depicted by the movie Kafka. His word consists of a collaboration of the absurd, irony, mundane, surreal, and dark humor. With the collaboration of these unique elements, Kafka is able to bring this ‘nightmarish’ quality to his work.

The most prevalent quality of his work is the use of ironic absurdity. The idealism of existentialism is portrayed in all of Kafka’s work that we have studied. Especially in the Metamorphosis, the ironic absurdity is prevalent, for even though what may seem to be the most absurd is the metamorphosis of Gregor into a bug, it is actually his family’s behavior that is absurd. The wrong assumption of what is absurd is what brings upon this irony, for what is absurd is not what one would expect it to be. Likewise in The Hunger Artist, we are again under the assumption that the act of starving oneself to death is what is absurd, however, the absurdity is again misplaced, for it is the viewers that are absurd. It is the hunger artist that has built his own cage, and it is society that remains ignorant. The use of the absurd to create irony is also depicted in the movie Kafka. In the midst of this complex plot, the absurd is not what one would expect it to be. As Nina discussed in her blog (http://3nina.wordpress.com/), the irony in Kafka comes into play at the end of the film, for as soon as he reaches realization, he begins to die. I quite liked her interpretation that these similar deaths of the three main protagonists (Gregor, the hunger artist, and Kafka) were not ironic, but in fact trying to prove an existentialist theory. Only when these characters reached realization, were they finally set free, and hence were able to die. From her point of view, each of their deaths holds a sense of freedom rather than a sense of irony, which seems to correlate with many existentialist ideals.

Kafka also uses the concept of the mundane to add to this irony. The absurdity of the mundane is portrayed in his work, giving a sense of irony. When comparing Metamorphosis and Kafka, one can see the use of the mundane to portray this absurd irony. In Metamorphosis, although Gregor has undergone a massive change, his family continues as if nothing has happened. One would expect a family’s reaction to be much more severe, but life goes on as always. Likewise, at the end of the novel, more irony is presented when the parents are about to make the same mistake with Grette as they did with Gregor. This repetition shows that they learnt nothing from the entire situation, and that nothing has changed. Likewise, in Kafka, after a long, complicated, and scary plot, everything returns to normal. As Kafka’s boss said “Why should today be any different?” This concept of the mundane also creates a paradoxical irony in comparison to the prevalent surrealistic characteristics of Kafka’s work. The fact that the absurd consists of the mundane elements, and not the surreal elements, adds to this underlying sense of irony that establishes this ‘Kafkaesque’ nature.

The combination of the absurd, irony, mundane, and surreal form a dark humor that is Kafkaesque. I only came to the realization of this dark humor during the movie when the crazy man was running around screaming. Although this was supposed to be ‘nightmarish’, I could not help but laughing, because the scene was just so ridiculous. This concept is expressed in the article ‘Laughing with Kafka’. I realized that the humor of Kafka was not witty jokes, but instead a humor brought with the absurd. The combination of the surreal and the mundane, incorporated with this irony and absurd, brings a sense of humor, for it is hard for one to not find certain things absolutely ridiculous. It is not the type of comical relief that most people look for, but it is certainly a dark sense of humor, brought upon by these absurd and surreal elements.

Although Kafka’s work deals with complex and futuristic elements, it is not those that give his word this Kafkaesque nature. It is his correlation between the real and the surreal that brings upon this nature. This is expressed in Kafka. Although the main plot is associated with scary and complex scientific experiments, ideas of class and politics are also incorporated into the plot. This is because these aspects were very important in Kafka’s life. These issues of class and politics are what bring the real element to Kafka’s work, which then brings a sense of irony in contrast to the surreal elements of his work. Kafkaesque essentially is the correlation of the real and the surreal, to portray a message regarding the absurdity of human nature.