Who is that Man?
Franz Kafka. It would be improper if I wouldn’t mention Franz Kafka after Zweig, whose name is even used as Kafkaesque- for describing a complicated and often depressing situation. His stories often include negative emotions like social anxiety and alienation. Born in Prague, in 1883; he died at the age of only 40 in 1924. Kafka had much in common with Zweig, whose stories I’ve written about earlier, both were born at same years into middle-class German speaking Jewish families. During their lifetimes, the country was economically stagnating and had both ethno-political and international problems. Austro-Hungary Empire was in a downturn and this affected both writers to become who they were, ‘deep analysts of human behaviour and psychology’. But I’ll write about it after representing his life.
Kafka had a classical patriarchal family; an autocratic, driven and at times angry father figure and a hardworking, silent mother with six children- three sons and three daughters, however Kafka was the only male child to reach adulthood, which put the family’s pressure on him. If one also thinks that, just like Zweig, Kafka had also lived in late-industrialization age Austro-Hungary and survived World War I, it would be easier to understand both internal and external effects on Kafka.
After a religious education until he’s 13, he enlisted to a classical-education government school, from which he moved on into a law school; for he had to be a provider for himself and for his family. And this career choice led to a depressed life, spent on insurance companies and factories. However, during these years, he became an ambitious reader and met his life-long friend, Max Brod. Kafka’s first stories were published on a literary magazine in 1908 and it’s said that he had not stopped writing even on his death bed. “Hunger artist” is written thus, while he was on a clinic for tuberculosis, on his final days. He had burnt most of his writings while he was alive and left only a fragment for his friend Max Brod to burn- which he didn’t. Max Brod arranged and published his writings after his death. On next entry, I will talk about Metamorphosis and Hunger Artist of Kafka.
