Merriam-Webster defines the word Kafkaesque as "of, relating to, or suggestive of Franz Kafka or his writing; especially : having a nighmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality." But does this definition fully encapsulate the elements that constitute the Kafkaesque? It's more complex than a single definition. The meaning of the adjective is far from concrete, as it depends on our interpretations of Kafka's works.
In 1991, Kafka biographer Frederick Karl attempted to describe "Kafkaesque":
"What I'm against is someone going to catch a bus and finding that all the buses have stopped running and saying that's Kafkaesque. What's Kafkaesque [...] is when you enter a surreal world in which all your control patterns, all your plans, the whole way in which you have configured your own behavior, begins to fall to pieces [...] What you do is struggle against this with all of your equipment, with whatever you have. But of course you don't stand a chance. That's Kafkaesque."
Above is a great video by Noah Tavlin in which he describes what "Kafkaesque" means. In the video he says, "It's not the absurdity of bureaucracy alone, but the irony of the characters' circular reasoning in reaction to it, that is emblematic of Kafka's writing." Tavlin asks, "The term Kafkaesque has entered the vernacular to describe unnecessarily complicated and frustrating experiences, especially with bureaucracy. But does standing in a long line to fill out confusing paperwork really capture the richness of Kafka's vision?" I liked how this article (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kafkaesque-meaning-video_us_57768f83e4b09b4c43c02e5b) responded to this question: "Probably not. What does, aside from Kafka's own brilliant and rightfully well-studied fiction? By this standard, perhaps we should only call Kafka himself Kafkaesque."
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