Who?

Do you ever wake up feeling like a bug? Out of place, an outsider, scurrying across the floor, and disoriented with your sudden metamorphosis? Prague-born Franz Kafka wrote novels and short stories constantly asking, “Where do I belong?” or “Where does man belong?” Growing up as the eldest child of a middle-class merchant, he had major daddy issues that followed him throughout his career, at one point writing a hundred-page letter father declaring his final independence and clearing his conscience. He transformed this lack of communication into the relations between authority figures and man. Kafka championed the outsider, depicting feelings of oppression, dread, and anxiety. In a world ruled by Bureaucracy the protagonist has no power to break free. Often his stories left the meaning open to the reader’s interpretation, leading to his works being revisited over and over again.

Why?

Kafka’s use of nightmarish scenarios interrupting a protagonist’s fight against a bureaucratic power led to the term ‘Kafkaesque’ being coined to describe any overwhelming or disorienting experience in culture or arts. The Metamorphosis and The Trial are two prime examples where the main character overcomes an exorbitant ‘trial by red tape’ haunted by fragmented nightmare scenes in order to progress the story.

Why we love them...

Sometimes the crazy struggles of life in the hostel and beyond leave us feeling like we’re living a ‘Kafkaesque’ nightmare of our own, but they teach us lessons about struggle, fear and the importance of strong, healthy relationships to get us through the hard times. Whether we are battling faceless bureaucrats or our own inner demons, Kafka's stories teach us that while the wall of dread can sometimes be daunting, those times teach important lessons and we’re here for those too.