what is Kafkaesque?

Kafka is unique and Kafkaesque is something characteristic of his writings.

I have gone through the Metamorphosis several times and yet I end up far from comprehending him.

I tend to seek a meaning, a commonality. I seek to order, systematize or sequence things.

I try to conventionalize him or chain him to a world of systems or orders or conformity.

No he breaks with conventions and wherein he succeeds. And we fail.

Kafka takes us away, far away from conventional realities. Our understanding of man is different from Kafka. We try to confine the study of man within parameters of our understanding, derived from religions, creeds, nationalities, geographies.

Englishness, Arabness, Americanness is nothing but an idea of stupidity at the bottom of the thing. Beneath the ness man is just a vermin and nothing else.

All attributes we call ethics, love, moralities, disciplines are skin-deep and go beyond the margins there remain nothing but the man-insect only.

Man-the insect then stings.

We love to choose hypocrisy. Kafka speaking truth is unpalatable to our taste.

That is how I understand him.

kafkaesque is surreal bizarre entrapment- fighting an unknown enemy

That's an interesting take on it. But the thing I like about Kafka is the way that he can be interpreted in so many different ways. Yet his stories/novels have something that I can never quite put my finger on.

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Originally Posted by Trystan

Yet his stories/novels have something that I can never quite put my finger on.

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Yes Trystan, we all have the same feelings. First when I read him I thought I was immature to undersntand the height or intensity of his intellectul persuasions and afterwards when I read comments on his works by some critics or writers I thought I was not singled out in finding his works intricate.
Notwithstanding the intricacies I still like to keep on reading. It is life like, the meaning of which is being perpetually sought by us and we are unsure whether we can ever get it.

Kafkaesque is a situation or feeling marked by surreal distortion and even a sense of impending danger.

I don't think blazeofglory was looking for a definition of "Kafkaesque", but rather our interpretations of his works... I may be wrong though.

If you are right he we should go for different works not a general interpretation. It is just al too much to get it into one sentence much less a definition. If you know what I mean.

Oh and would you be so kind and translate your signature ? I would like to know what it says. Is is in Tschech ?

kafkaesque is to me something absurd, with a lack of significance, opposite of the reason and the logic..
All the heroes or should i say anti-heroes of Kafka are involved in absurds situations, situations with no exit, situations they are not able to explain to themselves...
Absurdity as a metaphor, an existential parabol...
Some other authors are kafakesque too , such as Ionesco or Camus or Beckett, Robbe-Grillet and even Sartre...

For me kafkaesque is a feeling of incertitude, an awareness of the impossibility of any action while seemingly having every option.

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Originally Posted by Guinivere

Oh and would you be so kind and translate your signature ? I would like to know what it says. Is is in Tschech ?

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It is Bosnian. German translation: Die Lebenden wissen nichts. Lehrt mich, ihr Toten, wie man ohne Furcht oder wenigstens ohne Entsetzen sterben kann. Denn der Tod ist sinnlos, so wie das Leben.

Kafkaesque to me means the ultimate existential absurdity of life, and the deathly irony and tragedy that it causes and leaves us hanging, alone.

It's like this:

Say for instance, you know you have to be at work at 9 am. You get there, and your boss says you're an hour and fifteen minutes late. (Meaning you have work at 7:45.) So, the next day, you arrive at 7:45, but nobody's there.

The word "Kafkaesque" literally means just plain doesn't make sense and or doesn't sit right with someone.

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Originally Posted by blazeofglory

Kafka is unique and Kafkaesque is something characteristic of his writings.

I have gone through the Metamorphosis several times and yet I end up far from comprehending him.

I tend to seek a meaning, a commonality. I seek to order, systematize or sequence things.

I try to conventionalize him or chain him to a world of systems or orders or conformity.

No he breaks with conventions and wherein he succeeds. And we fail.

Kafka takes us away, far away from conventional realities. Our understanding of man is different from Kafka. We try to confine the study of man within parameters of our understanding, derived from religions, creeds, nationalities, geographies.

Englishness, Arabness, Americanness is nothing but an idea of stupidity at the bottom of the thing. Beneath the ness man is just a vermin and nothing else.

All attributes we call ethics, love, moralities, disciplines are skin-deep and go beyond the margins there remain nothing but the man-insect only.

Man-the insect then stings.

We love to choose hypocrisy. Kafka speaking truth is unpalatable to our taste.

That is how I understand him.

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Wow...amazing comment...
I am so happy to see people that felt the same thing reading Kafka's novels.
I have red for the first time Kafka when i was fourteen and i didn't understand it, but i could already feel that there was something special in it, something strange that i had never seen before.
Now i red Der process a lot of times, and i understand more and more it but never at all. Every reader should give up to understand Kafka at all, to put fingers on like someone said.
I arrived at the conclusion that Kafka wanted to be incomprehensible because reality, according to him, is nonsensical.
Everyone should read Kafka not in order to understand, but in order to FEEL this infinity anguish.

Awaiting your answers :)
Greetings by Italy :hat:

Consider this:

A Greek businessman friend of mine needs to issue his foreign (Swedish) client with a certificate of tax residence. That is, he has to send his client a certificate saying his company is based and pays taxes in Greece, to avoid double taxation.

Easy enough, he thinks, and visits the friendly chaps at his local tax office.

"You need a certificate from the Ministry of Finance," they inform him.

"But you guys are the tax people. You know my business pays taxes in Greece. I pay them to you. And you are in Greece. Surely you could give me the certificate?"

"Nope. You need to go to the Ministry."

So off my friend goes to the Ministry. There, he is told that he needs to submit a certificate of good standing with his local tax office, a document which basically says he's all paid up with his taxes. Then they will give him the certificate. Within 20 working days.

Greek bureaucracy. That's Kafkaesque.

DH

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Originally Posted by DocHeart

Consider this:

A Greek businessman friend of mine needs to issue his foreign (Swedish) client with a certificate of tax residence. That is, he has to send his client a certificate saying his company is based and pays taxes in Greece, to avoid double taxation.

Easy enough, he thinks, and visits the friendly chaps at his local tax office.

"You need a certificate from the Ministry of Finance," they inform him.

"But you guys are the tax people. You know my business pays taxes in Greece. I pay them to you. And you are in Greece. Surely you could give me the certificate?"

"Nope. You need to go to the Ministry."

So off my friend goes to the Ministry. There, he is told that he needs to submit a certificate of good standing with his local tax office, a document which basically says he's all paid up with his taxes. Then they will give him the certificate. Within 20 working days.

Greek bureaucracy. That's Kafkaesque.

DH

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LOOOOL yeah, i hate so much bureacracy :) it makes u crazy because there is always something that doesn't work at all. At the end whenever u want to do something, u will loose a lot of time

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Originally Posted by lolie

kafkaesque is to me something absurd, with a lack of significance, opposite of the reason and the logic..
All the heroes or should i say anti-heroes of Kafka are involved in absurds situations, situations with no exit, situations they are not able to explain to themselves...
Absurdity as a metaphor, an existential parabol...
Some other authors are kafakesque too , such as Ionesco or Camus or Beckett, Robbe-Grillet and even Sartre...

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is an absurd situation synonymous with a situation that lacks an exist? to me, kafkaesque is be a story that has an inherent sense of despair or lack of hope, but that teaches the opposite in the process.