Franz Kafka (Author of The Metamorphosis) Fiction , Philosophy , Short Stories Influences edit data Franz Kafka was one of the major fiction writers of the 20th century. He was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia (presently the Czech Republic), Austria–Hungary. His unique body of writing—much of which is incomplete and which was mainly published posthumously—is considered to be among the most influential in Western literature. His stories include The Metamorphosis (1912) and In the Penal Colony (1914), while his novels are The Trial (1925), The Castle (1926) and Amerika (1927). Kafka's first language was German, but he was also fluent in Czech. Later, Kafka acquired some knowledge of French language and culture; one of his favorite authors was Flaubert . Kafka first studied chemistry at the Charles-Ferdinan Franz Kafka was one of the major fiction writers of the 20th century. He was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia (presently the Czech Republic), Austria–Hungary.

His unique body of writing—much of which is incomplete and which was mainly published posthumously—is considered to be among the most influential in Western literature. His stories include The Metamorphosis (1912) and In the Penal Colony (1914), while his novels are The Trial (1925), The Castle (1926) and Amerika (1927). Kafka's first language was German, but he was also fluent in Czech. Later, Kafka acquired some knowledge of French language and culture; one of his favorite authors was Flaubert . Kafka first studied chemistry at the Charles-Ferdinand University of Prague, but switched after two weeks to law. This offered a range of career possibilities, which pleased his father, and required a longer course of study that gave Kafka time to take classes in German studies and art history. At the university, he joined a student club, named Lese- und Redehalle der Deutschen Studenten, which organized literary events, readings and other activities. In the end of his first year of studies, he met Max Brod , who would become a close friend of his throughout his life, together with the journalist Felix Weltsch , who also studied law.

Kafka obtained the degree of Doctor of Law on 18 June 1906 and performed an obligatory year of unpaid service as law clerk for the civil and criminal courts. Kafka's writing attracted little attention until after his death. During his lifetime, he published only a few short stories and never finished any of his novels, unless "The Metamorphosis" is considered a (short) novel. Prior to his death, Kafka wrote to his friend and literary executor Max Brod: "Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others'), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread." Brod overrode Kafka's wishes, believing that Kafka had given these directions to him specifically because Kafka knew he would not honor them—Brod had told him as much. Brod, in fact, would oversee the publication of most of Kafka's work in his possession, which soon began to attract attention and high critical regard. Max Brod encountered significant difficulty in compiling Kafka's notebooks into any chronological order as Kafka was known to start writing in the middle of notebooks, from the last towards the first, etc.

All of Kafka's published works, except several letters he wrote in Czech to Milena Jesenská, were written in German. ...more Kafka - definition of Kafka by The Free Dictionary Kafka - definition of Kafka by The Free Dictionary Related to Kafka: Kafkaesque , zookeeper Kaf·ka (käf′kə, -kä), Franz 1883-1924. Prague-born writer who wrote in German and whose stories, such as "The Metamorphosis" (1916), and posthumously published novels, including The Trial (1925), concern troubled individuals in a nightmarishly impersonal world. Kafka (ˈkæfkə; Czech ˈkafka) n (Biography) Franz (frants). 1883–1924, Czech novelist writing in German.

In his two main novels The Trial (1925) and The Castle (1926), published posthumously against his wishes, he portrays man's fear, isolation, and bewilderment in a nightmarish dehumanized world Kafkaesque adj Franz, 1883–1924, Austrian novelist and short-story writer, born in Prague. ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend: Noun 1. Kafka - Czech novelist who wrote in German about a nightmarish world of isolated and troubled individuals (1883-1924) Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us , add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content . Link to this page: world References in periodicals archive ? 1988: Franz Kafka's manuscript of his classic novel The Trial (1925) was sold at Sotheby's for PS1 million - a year after Kafka had died in poverty.

IBM Streaming Analytics and IBM Message Hub Now Available as Services on IBM Cloud Blanchot's The Space of Literature offers theoretical assistance in approaching Radnoti's poetry, yet paradoxically so, since the poems repel Blanchot's central formulations about the passivity and sacrifice of the author and, in his reflections on Kafka, about the uncertainty of death. Prague: the Czech Republic's "Dear Little Mother" Franz Kafka was born in 1883 in Prague, a city then under Austro-Hungarian rule. Copyright © 2003-2017 Farlex, Inc Disclaimer All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional. EU2009.cz - Famous Czech Writers of the 20th Century Famous Czech Writers of the 20th Century Franz Kafka (1883-1924) Franz Kafka is undoubtedly the most famous representative of the tradition of German-language literature in Prague, and his works have earned worldwide acclaim.

Franz Kafka was born in Prague, studied law and worked as a clerk all his life. Yet he considered writing to be his life’s principal mission. He was very critical of everything he wrote and most of his works were only published posthumously, against his will. Among Franz Kafka’s most widely read works are The Metamorphosis, The Trial, The Castle, and collected stories, journals and letters. Kafka suffered from a lung disease, to which he finally succumbed after seven years, in the Austrian town of Kierling. Karel Čapek (1890-1938) Karel Čapek was a major Czech writer, translator, playwright, journalist, critic and philosopher. He established the Czechoslovak branch of the international writers’ organisation Pen Club. He was a friend of the first Czechoslovak president, T. G. Masaryk, and an avid traveller. He wrote short stories (Money and Other Stories), novels with a sci-fi element (Krakatit), utopian dramas (R.U.R. – in which the word ‘robot’ was coined), allegories and poetic prose (Meteor, An Ordinary Life).

He warned about the danger of Fascism in his novel War with the Newts. He died of pneumonia less than three months after the Munich Agreement was signed. Jaroslav Seifert (1901-1986) The only Czech laureate of the Nobel Prize in literature, Jaroslav Seifert was a Czech poet and journalist. In the 1920s he was an editor of Communist periodicals but at the end of the decade he was expelled from the party for his opinions. At that time, he was a major representative of the Czech artistic avant-garde. Until 1949, he wrote for social-democratically oriented newspapers and magazines. Later, he concentrated on poetry alone. Seifert was an unbelievably prolific poet. His collections include: The Nightingale Sings Poorly (1926), Put out the Lights (1938), Helmet of Clay (1945), Mother (1954), All the Beauties of the World (1981), to name but a few. He received the Nobel Prize in 1984.

Vladimír Holan (1905–1980) Vladimír Holan was a Czech poet and translator. He published his first collection already in 1926, the same year he graduated from secondary school. Later he worked as a clerk, but due to health problems and his dissatisfaction with the job he retired after seven years. He then dedicated himself only to literature. After the 2nd World War, Holan sympathised with Communism. During the 1950s, he was, however, allowed to publish his works only with difficulty. When his daughter died in 1977, Holan stopped writing altogether. His work is characterised by a precise use of the Czech language and philosophical depth. Holan’s poems are mainly meditations and reflections. His collections include Kameni, přicházíš… (1937, You are coming, stone… ), Odpověď Francii (1938, The Reply to France), Terezka Planetová (1943), A Night with Hamlet (1980; in Czech 1964) or Bolest (1965, Pain).

Bohumil Hrabal (1914-1997) Bohumil Hrabal graduated from the Law Faculty in Prague, but worked in entirely unrelated professions: as a railway worker, train dispatcher, packager of old paper, steelworker, and salesman. He did not become a professional writer until 1963. His work is extensive and strongly autobiographical. Many of his books were turned into films during his lifetime. The film rendering of Closely Observed Trains was awarded an Oscar. Hrabal’s most famous works include Larks on a String (1959), Closely Observed Trains (also published as Closely Watched Trains) (1964), Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age (1964), Cutting It Short (1976), The Snowdrop Festival (1978), I Served the King of England (1971, published in 1980) and Too Loud A Solitude (1980). Josef Škvorecký (1924) Josef Škvorecký is a Czech writer, essayist, translator and publisher.

He only started university after the 2nd World War, and studied English and philosophy. He worked as a teacher and editor and became a professional writer in 1963. In 1969, he left to lecture at Cornell University in the United States. After the Czechoslovak regime suspended preparations for the publication of his book The Republic of Whores, he and his wife decided to remain in exile. They settled in Toronto and established the exile publishing house ’68 Publishers, which published books that were banned in Czechoslovakia. By 1993, 227 titles had been published there. Škvorecký’s most broadly known books include The Cowards (1949), The Republic of Whores (also known as The Tank Battalion) (1954), Sins for Father Knox (1974), The Swell Season (1975) and the Voice from America (1990). Milan Kundera (1929) Milan Kundera studied musicology, film, literature, and aesthetics, and later taught world literature at Prague’s Charles University. He was twice a member of the Communist party, and twice expelled from it.

In 1970, he became a dissident. In 1975, the University of Rennes offered him the position of visiting professor, and Kundera stayed in France. He lost his Czechoslovak citizenship, and in 1981 he acquired French citizenship. He started lecturing in Paris, where he lives to this day. He has written the novels The Joke (1965), The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Immortality (1990), and he is the author of a collection of poems called Monologues (1957), the theatre play The Blunder (1969) and the short story series Laughable Loves. Last update: 16.8.2011 16:01 Franz Kafka - Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online. Discuss.

Franz Kafka Biography of Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (1883-1924) Czech-born German writer is best known for his short story Metamorphosis (1912) and the widespread familiarity of the literary term Kafkaesque, inspired by his nightmarishly complex and bizarre yet absurd and impersonal short stories. Franz Kafka was born 3 July, 1883 in Prague, Bohemia, now the Czech Republic, into a Jewish middle-class, German speaking family; his mother Julie, (nï¿½e Lï¿½wy), three younger sisters and his successful merchant father Hermann. Hermann owned a shop below where the family lived in Prague's House of the Three Kings. He was ill-tempered and disrespectful towards his son's escape into literature and pursuit of writing and proved to be an on-going source of conflict and despair in many of Kafka's works. Kafka became the eldest and only son when his two brothers died in infancy and he was excruciatingly aware of this role in the family for the rest of his life.

Kafka rebelled against his father's materialism and often wrote metaphorically of the struggle to overcome a dismayingly gargantuan, overpowering and practically suffocating force, much like his own timid and shy self in relation to his father. His Letter to Father (1919), never sent, is a plaintive attempt to explain his fear of and estrangement from his father and attempt to end the unceasing reproaches he received, as being the eldest son, he felt to be such a disappointment to his father. Kafka's was visionary fiction, addressing three decades ahead of time the anxieties and change of the 20th century. While surrounded by some of the literati of the time such as Franz Werfel, he was isolated from the German community in Prague and he wrote of the ghetto before the urban renewal and rebuilding: "In us all it still lives -- the dark corners, the secret alleys, the shuttered windows, the squalid courtyards, the rowdy pubs, the sinister inns." Kafka was also alienated from his own heritage by his parent's perfunctory religious practice and minimal social formality in the Jewish community, though his style and influence is sometimes attributed to Jewish folk lore.

Kafka eventually declared himself a socialist atheist, Spinoza, Darwin and Nietzsche some of his influences. In 1902 Kafka met Max Brod who would become his translator, supporter and most intimate friend. Kafka entered the German University in Prague in 1901 to study German literature and law, receiving his doctorate in 1906. Kafka was to lead a relatively inauspicious life, an exemplary employee with the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute in Prague from 1907 to 1922. He would finally gain renown posthumously upon Max Brod's publication of his three major works, The Trial (1925) and The Castle in 1926 and Amerika (1927). Kafka's oeuvre is often filled with black humour in the style of parable, meditations, poetic fragments, and sketches. Though his works are often open to multiple interpretations, causing difficulty categorising his work in any single genre, existentialism and modernism are among them. In 1911, Kafka was to spend his first of many curative periods in sanatoriums and spas for ill health.

In 1912 he met and became engaged to Felice Bauer from Berlin. In 1912 he finished Metamorphosis his best-known short story, a masterpiece of stunning psychological, sociological and existential angst. From his third-floor room with a view of the Vltava river and the toll bridge crossing it, Kafka worked on Metamorphosis. "I would stand at the window for long periods," he wrote in his diary in 1912, "and was frequently tempted to amaze the toll collector on the bridge below by my plunge." He wrote Meditation in 1913, a collection of short prose pieces. In 1914 he finished Before the Law. In 1916 Kafka wrote The Judgement, directly reflecting his struggle with his father; the prophetic In the Penal Colony and A Country Doctor (1919), another collection of short prose. In 1917 Kafka broke his second engagement to Felice Bauer, most likely precipitated by his continued failure to cut ties with his domineering father and set forth in his own life to get married and settle down. He was also diagnosed with tuberculosis after years of poor health.

In 1923, finally escaping his paternal family he went to Berlin to write exclusively. He wrote A Hunger Artist in 1924, four stories illustrating the concise and lucid style of Kafka's writing in his later years. Kafka's lack of confidence and personal misgivings about his work caused him to request that all his unpublished manuscripts be destroyed, however his friend, biographer and literary executor Max Brod didn't obey his wishes and in 1925 he published The Trial, indisputably Kafka's most successful novel in it's dark exploration of anxiety, paranoia and persecution. Joseph K, the protagonist, unsuccessfully confronts arbitrary rules and a hopeless court system without knowing the crime with which he is guilty of. Brod also published The Castle (1926) a wide-sweeping metaphor of authority and bureaucracy and the search for grace and forgiveness and Amerika (1927) with a light and amusing angle but also an examination of the symbolic horrors of modern life. The Great Wall of China was published in 1931. 3 June 1924, Franz Kafka died from complications of tuberculosis in Kierling, near Vienna, Austria.

His remains are buried alongside his parent's under a two-meter obelisk in Prague's New Jewish Cemetery in Olsanske. There is no epitaph, but Milena Jesenska, his lover and Czech journalist and writer, a few days after his death wrote: "He wrote the most significant works of modern German literature, which reflect the irony and prophetic vision of a man condemned to see the world with such blinding clarity that he found it unbearable and went to his death." "Theoretically there is a perfect possibility of happiness: believing in the indestructible element in oneself and not striving towards it." Franz Kafka. Biography written by C.D. Merriman for Jalic Inc. Copyright Jalic Inc 2005. All Rights Reserved. The above biography is copyrighted. Do not republish it without permission. Forum Discussions on Franz Kafka Recent Forum Posts on Franz Kafka Kafka's A Hunger Artist Is this story a religious allegory or a story about the misunderstood artist? What is the significance of the panther who replaces the hunger artist in his cage? The 'art' of the hunger artist is something that he does alone, and apparently because he enjoys it?

So why does he want an audience so desperately, as to die when he loses it? Thanks.... Posted By chevalierdelame in Kafka, Franz || 0 Replies 130 years after Kafka's birth Prelude Kafka was born on the third day of July, 1883, in Prague which was then the second most important city of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. His parents were jewish, and his father had immigrated from the czech countryside to the center of Bohemia when he was young, attempting with much strife to better his horrible financial conditions. This he did succeed in, and when Franz was born the family was already reasonably rich, which enabled him to study at good schools and then attend university. Although Franz first started studying Chemistry, half a month later he switched to Law, which allowed him to still keep being on the track his father seemed to have wanted, and at the same ti... Posted By Kyriakos in Kafka, Franz || 0 Replies The Franz Kafka museum in Prague During our holiday in Prague, I went to the Franz Kafka museum (husband wanted a walk instead :rolleyes:). Got the biographic thing with his father, but very intersting, going through the influences on his work.

Very good conception of his works too, as well as good English translations. Did you know Kafka was a Taoist? Even went as far as saying he thought in his heart he was really Chinese. Shame that the original Jewish quarter that apparently makes up the dreamy world with Venice-like streets and alleyways and delapidated partly medieval buildings of his books was knocked down in the greatest re-design of Prague ever. But there are still places left you can look at or go, such as the... Posted By kiki1982 in Kafka, Franz || 1 Reply How did Kafka influence German Culture?... Posted By German3 in Kafka, Franz || 1 Reply What is your favorite story by Franz Kafka? I believe i have read all which has been released up to now, fiction, diaries, letters. I used to love Kafka's work (still like it, but i have moved away from his influence). My favorite story by him probably is At the penal colony. It is one of the most detailed and violent works by him. His most classical work possibly is the Metamorphosis, one of the few books you can sum up in a sentence and still make an impression on someone who has not read it.

Other, less known tales i like include The Railway at Galda, The Torturer (it is only a few lines long) and Blumfeld: An elderly bachelor.... Posted By Kyriakos in Kafka, Franz || 2 Replies Did Kafka suffer from BDD? BDD (Body Dysmorphic Disorder) is a mental illness that causes one to see either entirely imagined uglyness in his form, or exagerate real flaws, to the point where it becomes difficult for him to function socially. A few notes in Kafka's diary seem to point to the direction that he might have had some variant of this illness. Also in at least one of his letters to Felice he claims that he is ugly, but that this might be just imaginary, and that she might even think he is beautiful. BDD could explain some of his tragic life, since it is associated with depression and even suicidal ideation.... Posted By Kyriakos in Kafka, Franz || 3 Replies Biblical Allusions in The Metamorphosis I read The Metamporphosis for the first time last night in one sitting, my first experience with Kafka. The story is compelling on many levels, and one that I noticed was Biblical.

Samsa's downfall, like that of Adam and Eve, is brought about by an apple. Also, didn't God condemn Adam and Eve to crawling on their bellies, eating dust, for the rest of their lives, much like an insect? When Samsa finally dies, towards the end of March (Easter), he is forsaken and driven away by his people, his family, as Jesus was. Who or what do the three lodgers represent? I am struggling to connect this theory. Am I simply reading too much into this? Are these references isolated incidents of sy... Posted By KilgoreT in Kafka, Franz || 7 Replies Does Gregor's relationship with his sister have undertones? There's parts on page 36 that seem like they might indicate that.... Posted By kelby_lake in Kafka, Franz || 14 Replies I'd argue expressionist but what are your thoughts?... Posted By kelby_lake in Kafka, Franz || 3 Replies Finally ....a definitive English translation of Franz Kafka When I saw that my library had a new translation of Kafka's 'The Trial' on cd, I checked it out.

I love to listen to classics and others on cd, but 'The Trial' is not one to start with. However, I've read Kafka's novel twice before. So I started listening. The Introduction is given by the translater, Breon Mitchell. He explains that Kafka's friend, Max Brod, was left the task of destroying all Kafka's notes and unfinished novels, mainly 'Amerika', 'The Castle', and 'The Trial', at Kafka's death bed behest. But Max didn't do this. Instead he completed the novels and at the same time edited the finished chapters. From 1930, the translations of the Muirs were considered by most to be the defini... Posted By dfloyd in Kafka, Franz || 1 Reply Unseen Kafka Writings I'm looking forward to the publication of this story. Post here with updates regarding the publication of the manuscript. Does anyone have any knowledge of cases similar to this? How long did it take to publish those writings after they were discovered?...

Posted By TannerS in Kafka, Franz || 1 Reply FRANZ KAFKA: Diaryï¿½s Partial Truth This prose-poem tries to place the diaries of Franz Kafka(1883 to 1924) in a personal perspective. Kafka was one of the most influential fiction writers of the early 20th century; a novelist and writer of short stories whose works came to be regarded as one of the major achievements of 20th century literature. The acknowledgement and fame he achieved came only after his death. His diaries were written between 1910 and 1923.-Ron Price with thanks to Wikipedia, 18 July 2010. My diaries, Franz, began in 1984 with their casual observations, their details of daily life, philosophical reflections, ideas, accounts of dreams, thoughts of stories and prose-poemsï¿½but they will not become... Posted By Ron Price in Kafka, Franz || 0 Replies CzechSite: Famous Czechs Tatana Kucharova Czech Sportsmen A lot of excellent hockey players in NHL teams in the USA and Canada came from the Czech Republic.

The best known are Jaromir Jagr (born 1972) who played for New York Rangers, Pittsburg Penguines, Washington Capitals and goalkeeper Dominik Hasek (born 1965) who helped the Czech team to get the Olympic Gold in Nagano. In NHL he played for Chicago Blackhawks, Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings. Also the Czech tennis school is world famous and a lot of good tennis players came from there. Martina Navratilova (born 1956) is the one of the most successful representative together with Ivan Lendl (born 1960). She has won Wimbledon nine times and in total she has won 164 titles from international tournaments.

Jaromir Jagr Martina Navratilova Ivan Lendl Read more about Jaromir in an interesting book Jaromir Jagr (Ice Hockey Legends) by Dean Schabner Find more about Dominik in a wonderful book Dominic Hasek (Ice Hockey Legends) by Mike Burgan Know more about Martina in a great book The Lesbian Idol : Martina by Louise Allen Discover more about Ivan in an excellent book Ivan Lendl by Chip Eliot Vaclav Havel Vaclav Havel (1936-2011) was well known dramatist, essayist, philosopher and the president of the Czech Republic. The central theme of his literary texts is human identity and the mechanisms of dehumanized power. In the 70's and 80's he was something like a spiritual leader of the dissidents. After Velvet Revolution, in January 1990, he became president of the country and he stayed in the presidential office till February 2, 2003. Mr. Havel was very popular in the country and abroad as well. Mr. Havel left on Dec 18, 2011 early morning. RIP.

Vaclav Havel Find more about Havel - dramatist in book Critical Essays on Vaclav Havel by Marketa Goetz-Stankiewicz Read more about Havel - philosopher in book Disturbing the Peace by Karel Hvizdala Find more about Vaclav Havel also at his personal web site by Barrandov Studio Jaroslav Heyrovsky Nobel Prize Laureates Professor Jaroslav Heyrovsky (1890-1967) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1959 for invention and development of the polarographic method, the new branch of electrochemistry. He formed a school of polarographers in the Charles University. Another Czech Jaroslav Seifert (1901-1986) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1984. He published over 30 collections of poems and also the children's literature. In his poems Seifert has celebrated Prague and the cultural heritage of Czech Republic. Jaroslav Seifert Read more about Heyrovsky and Seifert in book 100 Years of Nobel Prizes by Baruch A.

Shaley Enjoy some poetry by Seifert in book The Early Poetry of Jaroslav Seifert translated by Dana Loewy Bedrich Smetana A couple of excellent musicians and composers were born in Bohemia or Moravia. One of the most famous is Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904), the author of Slavonic Dances and of the symphony From the New World. Another famous composer Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884) is the author of the Cycle of Symphonic Poems My Fatherland. Classical music fans probably know other Czech composers Leos Janacek and Zdenek Fibich. By the way, the famous song Roll out the Barrel was composed by another Czech composer Jaroslav Vejvoda in 1929. Antonin Dvorak Read more about Antonin Dvorak in a wonderful book Dvorak and His World by Michael Beckerman Josef Sudek Josef Sudek Another Czech, Josef Sudek (1896-1976) is one of the world's best photographers. In his works the subjective and objective points of view are intermixed.

His fragile and pellucid photographs present, in a fascinating manner, the harmonious beauty of everyday objects, nature and human life. Milos Forman Milos Forman A film director Milos Forman (born 1932) is considered one of the most significant film directors in the world today. He received the Oscars for his films One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus. He also directed a film version of the musical Hair. Find more about Josef Sudek's work in a wonderful book Josef Sudek by Anna Farova Read more about Milos Forman's career in an excellent book Milos Forman by Thomas J. Slater Franz Kafka in Wax Muzeum Czech Writers The famous Jewish writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924) spent the most portion of his life in Prague. You probably know his best works Metamorphosis, The Trial, The Castle. Another Czech writer Milan Kundera (born 1929) reached the international fame by his novels The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1985) and Immortality (1990).

He got some prestigious literary awards for his work and he is acknowledged as one of the world's best contemporary writers. It is surprising but the word robot is not the English one but has its origin in the Bohemia. In 1920 another Czech writer Karel Capek used this word for the first time in his theater play RUR (Rossum's Universal Robots). Milan Kundera Read more about Kafka in an excellent book Franz Kafka by Ronald Speirs Read one of the most famous Kundera's novel Immortality in translation by Peter Kussi Read another famous Kundera's novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being in translation by Michael Henry Heim Emil Zatopek Another Czech Sportsmen The most famous Czech athlete is Emil Zatopek (1922-2000), winner of 1948 Olympic gold medal at 10 000 meters, and unprecedented winner Olympic triple crown (5 000 meters, 10 000 meters and marathon) in Helsinki 1952. During his long career he set 20 world records at distances ranging from 5 000 to 30 000 m.

Another famous Czech, Vera Caslavska (born 1942) won two golds, on the vault and beam, at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. She ruled women's gymnastics between the 1964 and 1968 Olympics. Vera Caslavska Czech Inventors A lot of inventions has its origin in the Czech lands. Let's mention some of the most famous Czech scientists and inventors.

Prokop Divis (1698-1765), The Invention of Lightning Rod Frantisek Krizik (1847-1941), The Construction of the Arc Lamp with Automatic Regulation Jan Jansky (1873-1921), Classified Four Blood Groups Karel Raska (1909-1987), Carried Out the Project to Wipe Out Smallpox Otto Wichterle (1888-1986), The Inventor of the Soft (Hydrogel) Contact Lenses and the Inventor of the Silon Jan Evangelista Purkyne (1787-1869), Formulation of the Cell Theory and the Examination of the Skin Surface as the Basis of Fingerprints Identification Ales Hrdlicka (1869-1943), Formulated the Theory of the Global Origin of Human Beings and Formulated Three General Laws on the Spread of Man Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884), The Founder of Genetics and the Discoverer of the Essential Laws of Inheritance Frantisek Burian (1881-1965

), Accompished that Plastic Surgery was Acknowledged as an Independent Surgery Specialization Josef Sousedik (1894-1944), The Inventor in the Field of Electrical Machines such as Asynchronous Motor with an Automatic Starter Viktor Kaplan (1876-1934), Constructed Water Turbine with Adjustable Blades of the Propeller Wheel Josef Ressel (1793-1857), Construction of the Screw Propeller Alois Senefelder (1771-1834), The Inventor of Lithography Frantisek Veverka (1796-1849) & Vaclav Veverka (1799-1849), The Cylindr Shaped Mouldboard Plough Frantisek Hruska (1819-1888), Invented Honey Separator Jakub Husnik (1837-1916), Heliotype Inventor Karel Klic (1841-1926), Photogravure Inventor Jan Amos Komensky (1592-1670), Modern Pedagogy Founder Bedrich Hrozny (

1879-1952), Deciphered the Hittite Language © CzechSite, San Francisco, Prague, 1996-2014.

All Rights Reserved. Franz Kafka | German-language writer | Britannica.com German-language writer Voltaire Franz Kafka, (born July 3, 1883, Prague , Bohemia , Austria-Hungary [now in Czech Republic]—died June 3, 1924, Kierling, near Vienna , Austria ), German-language writer of visionary fiction , whose posthumously published novels—especially Der Prozess (1925; The Trial) and Das Schloss (1926; The Castle)—express the anxieties and alienation of 20th-century man. Franz Kafka. Archiv für Kunst und Geschichte, Berlin Life Franz Kafka, the son of Julie Löwy and Hermann Kafka, a merchant, was born into a prosperous middle-class Jewish family. After two brothers died in infancy, he became the oldest child, remaining forever conscious of his role as older brother; Ottla, the youngest of his three sisters, became the family member closest to him. Kafka strongly identified with his maternal ancestors because of their spirituality, intellectual distinction, piety, rabbinical learning, eccentricity, melancholy disposition , and delicate physical and mental constitution.

He was not, however, particularly close to his mother, a simple woman devoted to her children. Subservient to her overwhelming, ill-tempered husband and his exacting business, she shared with her spouse a lack of comprehension of their son’s unprofitable and possibly unhealthy dedication to the literary “recording of [his]…dreamlike inner life.” The figure of Kafka’s father overshadowed his work as well as his existence; the figure is, in fact, one of his most impressive creations. For, in his imagination, this coarse, practical, and domineering shopkeeper and patriarch, who worshiped nothing but material success and social advancement, belonged to a race of giants and was an awesome, admirable, but repulsive tyrant. In Kafka’s most important attempt at autobiography , “ Brief an den Vater Letter to Father ”), a letter that never reached the addressee, Kafka attributed his failure to live—to cut loose from parental ties and establish himself in marriage and fatherhood—as well as his escape into literature , to the prohibitive father figure, which instilled in him the sense of his own impotence. He felt his will had been broken by his father.

The conflict with the father is reflected directly in Kafka’s story Das Urteil (1913; The Judgment). It is projected on a grander scale in Kafka’s novels, which portray in lucid, deceptively simple prose a man’s desperate struggle with an overwhelming power, one that may persecute its victim (as in The Trial) or one that may be sought after and begged in vain for approval (as in The Castle). Yet the roots of Kafka’s anxiety and despair go deeper than his relationship to his father and family, with whom he chose to live in close and cramped proximity for the major part of his adult life. The source of Kafka’s despair lies in a sense of ultimate isolation from true communion with all human beings—the friends he cherished, the women he loved, the job he detested, the society he lived in—and with God, or, as he put it, with true indestructible Being. Britannica Stories Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent The son of an assimilated Jew who held only perfunctorily to the religious practices and social formalities of the Jewish community , Kafka was German both in language and culture .

He was a timid, guilt-ridden, and obedient child who did well in elementary school and in the Altstädter Staatsgymnasium, an exacting high school for the academic elite. He was respected and liked by his teachers. Inwardly, however, he rebelled against the authoritarian institution and the dehumanized humanistic curriculum, with its emphasis on rote learning and classical languages. Kafka’s opposition to established society became apparent when, as an adolescent, he declared himself a socialist as well as an atheist. Throughout his adult life he expressed qualified sympathies for the socialists, he attended meetings of the Czech Anarchists (before World War I), and in his later years he showed marked interest and sympathy for a socialized Zionism . Even then he was essentially passive and politically unengaged. As a Jew, Kafka was isolated from the German community in Prague, but, as a modern intellectual, he was also alienated from his own Jewish heritage. He was sympathetic to Czech political and cultural aspirations , but his identification with German culture kept even these sympathies subdued. Thus, social isolation and rootlessness contributed to Kafka’s lifelong personal unhappiness.

Kafka did, however, become friendly with some German-Jewish intellectuals and literati in Prague, and in 1902 he met Max Brod ; this minor literary artist became the most intimate and solicitous of Kafka’s friends, and eventually he emerged as the promoter, saviour, and interpreter of Kafka’s writings and as his most influential biographer. The two men became acquainted while Kafka was studying law at the University of Prague . He received his doctorate in 1906, and in 1907 he took up regular employment with an insurance company. The long hours and exacting requirements of the Assicurazioni Generali, however, did not permit Kafka to devote himself to writing. In 1908 he found in Prague a job in the seminationalized Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. There he remained until 1917, when tuberculosis forced him to take intermittent sick leaves and, finally, to retire (with a pension) in 1922, about two years before he died. In his job he was considered tireless and ambitious; he soon became the right hand of his boss, and he was esteemed and liked by all who worked with him.

Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies In fact, generally speaking, Kafka was a charming, intelligent, and humorous individual, but he found his routine office job and the exhausting double life into which it forced him (for his nights were frequently consumed in writing) to be excruciating torture , and his deeper personal relationships were neurotically disturbed. The conflicting inclinations of his complex and ambivalent personality found expression in his sexual relationships. Inhibition painfully disturbed his relations with Felice Bauer, to whom he was twice engaged before their final rupture in 1917. Later his love for Milena Jesenská Pollak was also thwarted. His health was poor and office work exhausted him. In 1917 he was diagnosed as having tuberculosis, and from then onward he spent frequent periods in sanatoriums. Literary Favorites: Fact or Fiction? In 1923 Kafka went to Berlin to devote himself to writing. During a vacation on the Baltic coast later that year, he met Dora Dymant (Diamant), a young Jewish socialist. The couple lived in Berlin until Kafka’s health significantly worsened during the spring of 1924.

After a brief final stay in Prague, where Dymant joined him, he died of tuberculosis in a clinic near Vienna. Works Sought out by leading avant-garde publishers, Kafka reluctantly published a few of his writings during his lifetime. These publications include two sections (1909) from Beschreibung eines Kampfes (1936; Description of a Struggle); Betrachtung (1913; Meditation), a collection of short prose pieces; and other works representative of Kafka’s maturity as an artist—The Judgment, a long story written in 1912; two further long stories, Die Verwandlung (1915; Metamorphosis) and In der Strafkolonie (1919; In the Penal Colony); and a collection of short prose, Ein Landarzt (1919; A Country Doctor). Ein Hungerkünstler (1924; A Hunger Artist), four stories exhibiting the concision and lucidity characteristic of Kafka’s late style, had been prepared by the author but did not appear until after his death.

Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest In fact, misgivings about his work caused Kafka before his death to request that all of his unpublished manuscripts be destroyed; his literary executor, Max Brod, disregarded his instructions. Brod published the novels The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika in 1925, 1926, and 1927, respectively, and a collection of shorter pieces, Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer (The Great Wall of China), in 1931. Such early works by Kafka as Description of a Struggle (begun about 1904) and Meditation, though their style is more concretely imaged and their structure more incoherent than that of the later works, are already original in a characteristic way. The characters in these works fail to establish communication with others; they follow a hidden logic that flouts normal, everyday logic; their world erupts in grotesque incidents and violence. Each character is only an anguished voice, vainly questing for information and understanding of the world and for a way to believe in his own identity and purpose.

Many of Kafka’s fables contain an inscrutable, baffling mixture of the normal and the fantastic, though occasionally the strangeness may be understood as the outcome of a literary or verbal device, as when the delusions of a pathological state are given the status of reality or when the metaphor of a common figure of speech is taken literally. Thus in The Judgment a son unquestioningly commits suicide at the behest of his aged father. In The Metamorphosis the son wakes up to find himself transformed into a monstrous and repulsive insect; he slowly dies, not only because of his family’s shame and its neglect of him but because of his own guilty despair. Many of the tales are even more unfathomable. In the Penal Colony presents an officer who demonstrates his devotion to duty by submitting himself to the appalling (and clinically described) mutilations of his own instrument of torture. This theme, the ambiguity of a task’s value and the horror of devotion to it—one of Kafka’s constant preoccupations—appears again in A Hunger Artist.

The fable “ Vor dem Gesetz ” (1914; “ Before the Law, ” later incorporated into The Trial) presents both the inaccessibility of meaning (the “law”) and man’s tenacious longing for it. A group of fables written in 1923–24, the last year of Kafka’s life, all centre on the individual’s vain but undaunted struggle for understanding and security. Trending Topics Eyjafjallajökull volcano Many of the motifs in the short fables recur in the novels. In Amerika , for example, the boy Karl Rossmann has been sent by his family to America. There he seeks shelter with a number of father figures. His innocence and simplicity are everywhere exploited, and a last chapter describes his admission to a dreamworld, the “nature-theatre of Oklahoma”; Kafka made a note that Rossmann was ultimately to perish. In The Trial , Joseph K. , an able and conscientious bank official and a bachelor, is awakened by bailiffs, who arrest him. The investigation in the magistrate’s court turns into a squalid farce, the charge against him is never defined, and from this point the courts take no further initiative .

But Joseph K. consumes himself in a search for inaccessible courts and for an acquittal from his unknown offense. He appeals to intermediaries whose advice and explanations produce new bewilderment; he adopts absurd stratagems; squalor, darkness, and lewdness attend his search. Resting in a cathedral, he is told by a priest that his protestations of innocence are themselves a sign of guilt and that the justice he is forced to seek must forever be barred to him. A last chapter describes his execution as, still looking around desperately for help, he protests to the last. This is Kafka’s blackest work: evil is everywhere, acquittal or redemption is inaccessible, frenzied effort only indicates man’s real impotence. In The Castle , one of Kafka’s last works, the setting is a village dominated by a castle. Time seems to have stopped in this wintry landscape, and nearly all the scenes occur in the dark. K. arrives at the village claiming to be a land surveyor appointed by the castle authorities. His claim is rejected by the village officials, and the novel recounts K.’s efforts to gain recognition from an authority that is as elusive as Joseph K.’s courts. But K.

is not a victim; he is an aggressor, challenging both the petty, arrogant officials and the villagers who accept their authority. All of his stratagems fail. Like Joseph K., he makes love to a servant, the barmaid Frieda, but she leaves him when she discovers that he is simply using her. Brod observes that Kafka intended that K. should die exhausted by his efforts but that on his deathbed he was to receive a permit to stay. There are new elements in this novel; it is tragic, not desolate. While the majority of Kafka’s characters are mere functions, Frieda is a resolute person, calm and matter-of-fact. K. gains through her personality some insight into a possible solution of his quest, and, when he speaks of her with affection, he seems himself to be breaking through his sense of isolation. Kafka’s stories and novels have provoked a wealth of interpretations. Brod and Kafka’s foremost English translators, Willa and Edwin Muir , viewed the novels as allegories of divine grace. Existentialists have seen Kafka’s environment of guilt and despair as the ground upon which to construct an authentic existence.

Some have seen his neurotic involvement with his father as the heart of his work; others have emphasized the social criticism , the inhumanity of the powerful and their agents, the violence and barbarity that lurk beneath normal routine. Some have found an imaginative anticipation of totalitarianism in the random and faceless bureaucratic terror of The Trial. The Surrealists delighted in the persistent intrusions of the absurd. There is evidence in both the works and the diaries for each of these interpretations, but Kafka’s work as a whole transcends them all. One critic may have put it most accurately when he wrote of the works as “open parables” whose final meanings can never be rounded off. But Kafka’s oeuvre is also limited. Each of his works bears the marks of a man suffering in spirit and body, searching desperately, but always inwardly, for meaning, security, self-worth, and a sense of purpose. Kafka himself looked upon his writing and the creative act it signified as a means of “redemption,” as a “form of prayer” through which he might be reconciled to the world or might transcend his negative experience of it.

The lucidly described but inexplicable darkness of his works reveal Kafka’s own frustrated personal struggles, but through his powerless characters and the strange incidents that befall them the author achieved a compelling symbolism that more broadly signifies the anxiety and alienation of the 20th-century world itself. At the time of his death, Kafka was appreciated only by a small literary coterie. His name and work would not have survived if Max Brod had honoured Kafka’s testament—two notes requiring his friend to destroy all unpublished manuscripts and to refrain from republishing the works that had already appeared in print. Brod took the opposite course, and thus the name and work of Kafka gained worldwide posthumous fame. This development took place first during the regime of Adolf Hitler , in France and the English-speaking countries—at the very time when Kafka’s three sisters were deported and killed in concentration camps. After 1945 Kafka was rediscovered in Germany and Austria and began to greatly influence German literature . By the 1960s this influence extended even to the intellectual, literary, and political life of communist Czechoslovakia .

Additional Media Franz Kafka Franz Kafka Location of death: Kierling, Vienna, Austria Cause of death: Tuberculosis Remains: Buried, New Jewish Cemetery, Prague, Czechia Gender: Male Nationality: Austria Executive summary: Metamorphosis Franz Kafka is an icon of dark existentialist and absurdist literature who often wrote about themes of isolation, alienation, and authoritarian oppression. His best known work includes the short story "The Metamorphosis", in which the main character transforms into a beetle, as well as "In the Penal Colony", "The Hunger Artist", and the novels The Trial, The Castle, and the unfinished Amerika. Also of note were the various autobiographical observations and literary ideas culled from his many journals as well as his famed "Letter to His Father", in which he attempted to explain their strained relationship and his emotional peculiarities. Kafka was born in Prague in 1883. Although Kafka was born a Jew he complained of feeling little in common with other Jews. He attended synagogue but four times a year, spoke mainly German (although Czech had been the language of his childhood), and had little cultural involvement with the Jewish community, with the exception of Jewish theater groups.

His middle class bourgeois family aspired to upward mobility and acceptance into the German mainstream. As outlined in "Letter to His Father", Franz Kafka's father, Hermann Kafka, was a major influence in the writer's life. Generally portrayed as large, loud, volatile, and domineering, Hermann Kafka was a self-made man who had risen from poverty to entrepreneur shopkeeper. The younger Kafka often felt he had more in common with his mother's side of the family. Kafka's mother, Julie L�wy, was the second child of a well-to-do cloth merchant and brewer, and her relations were more accustomed to a calmer, more genteel approach to life. Kafka also felt life might have been different if his father's rage might have been spread amongst other sons; however both his younger brothers, George and Heinrich, died when barely out of infancy, and it was left to Franz alone to struggle with the mantle of his father's expectations and frustrations. Of his three sisters -- Gabrielle (Elli), Valerie (Valli), and Ottilie (Ottla) -- it was the youngest sister, Ottla, whom Franz loved the most, and whom Herman Kafka liked the least.

As a youngster Franz Kafka was a voracious reader and enjoyed putting on plays for his sisters. After completing his primary studies, he went on to study law at Charles Ferdinand University (better known as the University of Prague). After graduation he took a position as a insurance agent, a job he retained until weakness from tuberculosis forced him to retire. Meanwhile he began writing on the side, and even had a few things published. But he remained self-deprecating about his writing, as he was about himself in general, and on his death bed asked his close lifelong friend Max Brod to burn all his unpublished works, including journals and correspondence. It was a promise Brod did not keep. Instead Brod, who had always been impressed with Kafka's literary abilities, edited a portion of what remained and had it published. Interest in Kafka's work soared and, over the years, has continued to garner a following. While Kafka holds a considerable following among existentialists, who find in his gloom and doom anxiety about life an expression of deepest truth (that we are meaningless and alone, yet can't help but yearn for it all to matter), he also finds sympthetic response among magical realists and others who favor an absurdist, surreal representation of life.

Kafka himself attributed much of his outlook on life to the affects of the relationship with his father. In Letter to His Father (1919) he stated: "My writing was all about you; all I did there, after all, was to bemoan what I could not bemoan upon your breast. It was an intentionally long-drawn-out leave-taking from you." His work was often fraught with cold, authoritarian figures that persecuted and threatened for reasons barely understood and often unexplained -- a situation which perfectly summed up Kafka's childhood sense of his own father. Illness and physical limitation also plagued Kafka, yet another senseless extrusion of suffering which implied to him a callous universe or perverse creator. In addition to the tuberculosis that had first appeared in 1917, Kafka experienced frequent bouts of insomnia, migraine headaches, boils, constipation, and other ailments. He was a hypochondriac and possibly an anorexic, as his weight suffered wild fluxuations and his dietary peculiarities progressed through prodigious consumption of unpasteurized milk (a possible source of infectious tuberculosis) to a completely vegan diet. His attitudes toward sexuality was also marked by extreme neurosis.

Unable to reconcile his physical urges (which were visited upon prostitutes and loose women) with his romantic longings, he had a series of prolonged, probably chaste, engagements that invariably ended in his breaking off the relationship. Despite this fact, and despite his being overwhelmed with feelings of inadequacy and self-loathing, he was much liked by friends (including women friends) for his gentle, cool demeanor, his wry wit, and his obvious intelligence. He was further viewed not as weak and repulsive, his own fear, but as boyishly good looking, as well as neat and austere. Franz Kafka died in 1924 from complications related to tuberculosis. It has been noted that due to the great pain in his throat, from this condition, he was unable to eat and barely to drink in his last days. He often complained of thirst in his letters home to his father, and at the end may have simply starved to death. His body is buried in Prague, in the Jewish section of the Strasnice cemetery. His mother and father are interred beside him. All three of his sisters were killed in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Father: Hermann Kafka (b. 1852, d.

1931) Mother: Julie Löwy (b. 1856, d. 1934). Brother: Georg (d. infancy) Sister: Gabrielle ("Elli", d. WWII concentration camp) Sister: Valerie ("Valli", d. WWII concentration camp) Sister: Ottilie ("Ottla", d. WWII concentration camp) Girlfriend: Felice Bauer Mistress: Grete Bloch (friend of Felice Bauer, claimed to have borne Kafka's child) Mistress: Milena Jesenská-Pollak (writer) Franz Kafka | Prague.net Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (1883 – 1924) was one of the major German-language fiction writers of the 20th century. He was born to a middle-class Jewish family based in Prague, at that time being a part of Austria-Hungary. His unique body of writing — much of which is incomplete and has been published posthumously — is among the most influential in Western literature.

Kafka was born in Prague in 1883, and most of his life spent there, although he died, aged 40, in 1924 in sanatorium Kierling near Vienna. His first language was German, although he was also able to speak Czech quite well. Without exaggeration; who is well-educated, knows Kafka, however during his lifetime he published only few short stories. He became famous later, such works as novella Metamorphosis or novels The Trial, The Castle and America, which were published posthumously, brought him to world’s attention. His writings mostly concerns about troubled individuals in a nightmarishly impersonal and bureaucratic world. All his works were written in German, the only noticeable pieces he wrote in Czech were letters to Milena Jesenska, an important Czech journalist, his close friend and the most probably also his lover. Today, there is quite strong legacy of Franz Kafka in Prague, you can visit his museum , where you can buy correspondences, diaries, manuscripts, photographs and drawings, which have not been comprehensively exhibited in the past.

Close to Old Town Square , there is a small square named after him, with his bust by the sculptor Karel Hladik, and also the house no. 22, the Kafka’s house . And an interesting statue inspired by Kafka´s life and work, made by Czech sculpture Jaroslav Rona in 2000, is to be seen nearby in Dusni Street, where Kafka spend most of his life. (at the picture with prague police) The word “Kafkaesque” is often used to describe situations remanding those from his novels, means those, which are absurd, quite tragic, strange, chaotic… So maybe, if you wander lonely through streets of Old Prague you will also feel that “Kafkaesgue” atmosphere of the town for a while.

Question: Which Czech author wrote The Trial and The Castle?
Answer: FRANZ KAFKA