Franz Kafka's literary style and connection to modernism

Franz Kafka and Modernism

Franz Kafka is one of the most enigmatic and interesting figures in literature. His work has left an enduing impression on world literature as well as on popular culture. The term "Kafkaesque" has entered into ordinary vocabulary and conversation. This term refers to the particular style of his writing and to the macabre, almost nightmarish quality of his prose. This is a style of writing and view of reality associated with Kafka's work that is "...Marked by surreal distortion and often a sense of impending danger..." (Kafkaesque) more comprehensive explanation of this term, which has particular reference to the topic of this paper, is the following.

The adjective refers to anything suggestive of Kafka, especially his nightmarish type of narration, in which characters lack a clear course of action, the ability to see beyond immediate events, and the possibility of escape. The term's meaning has transcended the literary realm to apply to real-life occurrences and situations that are incomprehensibly complex, bizarre, or illogical.

Kafkaesque)

The above quotation points to a central aspect of Kafka's art and view of life.

He wrote about people who are trapped in a world of meaninglessness and inhuman bureaucracy, where there is no direction to life and no "possibly of escape." In these works life and reality are absurd and illogical. These aspects will be discussed in more detail in this paper and refer to the connections with Modernist art and literature and the search for an answer to the human predicament in the modern world.

From the point-of-view of world literature, the works of Franz Kafka have created a specific genre or literary niche. Much of the value of his writing lies however in the fact that it forms part of a general trend of literature in the 20th century. This is the Modernist movement in thought and art. Many critics are of the opinion that Kafka is closely aligned to the central movements in thought and literature during that period associated with Modernism; such as existentialism. In essence, the writings of Franz Kafka have become an integral part of the body of work written in the first half of the Twentieth Century that has become known as Modernism.

Kafka has also been closely linked to the school of philosophical thinking known as existentialism. This philosophy, which was an essential part of the Modernist movement, questions the meaning and the reality of existence. It asks questions such as, "what does it mean to exist?," "what if the purpose of existing and life and is there any purpose at all?," and "...do we exist?"

As will be discussed, this school of thought forms an integral and essential mode of thought in Modernism and literature.

Kafka saw literature and much more that mere fictional entertainment. Rather he viewed it as a serious means of investigating and understanding our human reality and existence. As Kafka stated of the importance of literature:

think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us...We need the kind of books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.

Existentialism and Franz Kafka)

This attitude can be seen in the nightmarish world that Kafka created in one of his most famous short stories, the Metamorphosis. In this story, which will be examined later in this paper, the world is seen as impersonal and dehumanized. The story projects a somber feeling of personal and social angst which is central to the meaning of Modernism in contemporary literature. Central to much of his work is the sense of alienation that modern humanity experiences. This has been described as, "...Kafka's nightmares of dehumanization, bureaucratic labyrinths, and totalitarian society..." (Franz Kafka 1883-1924) in this sense Kafka is similar other writers and artists who criticize modern society, such as George Orwell

This paper will therefore attempt to show the central meaning and intention in Kafka's works and relate this to the Modernist movement. This will necessitate a clear understanding and overview of the meaning and significance of Modernism. This will be followed by a more intimate and personal look at Kafka and that way that his life relates to Modernism.

2. Modernism

Before discussing the life and works of Franz Kafka, it is important to investigate the social, philosophical and literary context in which he lived and worked. This means that the ideas and the views of the Modernist period of literature have to be taken into account. In many ways Kafka can be seen as one of the greatest writers of this period.

The most essential aspect of Modernism is that it was a part of social and artistic history which radically questioned the accepted views, assumptions and norms of society at that time. The key phrase in all of Modernist art and literature is radical questioning. This is an in-depth and intense questioning of the knowledge and values that had shaped the Western world up to the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries.

A general definition of the term Modernism is as follows: "Modernist literature is characterized chiefly by a rejection of 19th-century traditions and of their consensus between author and reader... Modernist writers tended to see themselves as an avant-garde disengaged from bourgeois values, and disturbed their readers by adopting complex and difficult new forms and styles. " (Modernism)

An important aspect of Modernism was that it questioned or interrogated the world and writers like Kafka realized or became aware of the emptiness and the sense of anxiety and despair that was a central characteristic of the human condition. While there was a general awareness of the psychological, sociological and scientific advances in the world at that time, there was also a sense of confusion and loss of direction as well as, "...a sense of urban cultural dislocation." (Modernism)

The artists and writers of the time were therefore dissatisfied with the view or version of reality that was presented to them by conventional society. This was particularly the case with regards to dissatisfaction that was felt with respect to the political and social establishment.

Numerous thinkers and artists began questioning the leadership of modern society. The beginning of the First World War and the horrific slaughter that followed was one of the historical events that caused people to question the status quo.

Another aspect to consider in understanding Modernism is the fact that this was a period of many new theories and discoveries and the introduction of new knowledge in all fields and disciplines; which questioned old ways of perception and thinking. For example, during this period Freud discovered the force and power of the human unconscious and the vital role that this plays in human motivation. It was also the age of new scientific discoveries, such as the theory of evolution. This theory is a good example of the new knowledge during this period that upset and introduced doubt into the more traditional and conventional ideas of life that had dominated before Modernism.

All of these new discoveries challenged and altered the traditional and normative ways of looking at reality. This also refers to new social theories and practices - such as the beginning of Marxism and Communism. All of these aspects and many others were internalized and incorporated into the work of a writer like Kafka, who expressed the new age of doubt, anxiety and alienation so well.

As new styles and art forms began to emerge and there was a deep distrust of the value and knowledge systems of the past. New writing techniques and styles were also experimented with. These were used, as in the case of Kafka, to better express the way that the writer experienced the modern human condition. In summary therefore the term modernism refers to, the radical shift in aesthetic and cultural sensibilities evident in the art and literature of the post-World War One period. The ordered, stable and inherently meaningful world view of the nineteenth century could not...accord with "the immense panorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history." (Modernism and the Modern Novel)

Kafka 19)

The story suggests that modern man is in an existential crisis and that he is trapped with very little chance of escape for the dehumanized and alienating environment in which he lives. The image and metaphor of the clumsy insect into which the protagonist in the story has changed, is a perfect and terrifying metaphor for existential anxiety and the sense of futile entrapment.

The story can also be related to Kafka's personal life. As one critic notes, there is a clear correspondence between the story of a man transformed suddenly into an insect and the confining and the claustrophobic situation of Kafka's own life.

When pondering whether escape is possible from the nightmarish world that is Kafka's creation, one must wonder where one may escape to. Kafka himself was trapped by circumstances beyond his control, he was living as a Jew in Austria, an unstable prospect at best. He was terrorized by his father, in reality and in his dreams. He was single, never marrying, and having only sporadic love and affection. How can one in this situation escape?

Franz Kafka as Modernist)

The sense of horror in the story is largely conveyed through the writing style. The terrifying transformation is described in detail and in a bland, factual and matter-of-fact way.

He thought that he might get out of bed with the lower part of his body first, but this lower part, which he had not yet seen and of which he could form no clear conception, proved too difficult to move; it shifted so slowly; and when finally, almost wild with annoyance, he gathered his forces together and thrust out recklessly, he had miscalculated the direction and bumped heavily against the lower end of the bed, and the stinging pain he felt informed him that precisely this lower part of his body was at the moment probably the most sensitive.

Kafka 22)

The description of the transformation into an insect is also the description of the dehumanization of the individual. This is possibly the true horror of the story, in that it is a metaphor for the modern human condition. This reduction of natural humanity and the sense of horror at this change are expressed in the main character's inability to speak normally.

Gregor had a shock as he heard his own voice answering hers, unmistakably his own voice, it was true, but with a persistent horrible twittering squeak behind it like an undertone, that left the words in their clear shape only for the first moment and then rose up reverberating round them to destroy their sense, so that one could not be sure one had heard them rightly.

Kafka 22)

This passage echoes the points mentioned above and refers to the sense of loss of identify and meaning and the sense of despair that was emphasized by Modernism and Existentialism.

In conclusion, the works of Franz Kafka are representative of the central ethos and tents of the Modernist movement in literature. His works expresses "... The angst and spiritual and emotional alienation that has become part of the Western experience with the relentless process known as modernism." (Franz Kafka and his Metamorphosis) His central themes, which emanate from a critique of his contemporary world, are the dislocation of identity and meaning and modern despair and confusion. "Kafka expressed in a deeply moving way how the hugeness and absurdity of the modern world, drifting on a relativistic sea, effects the deeply personal core of individuals." (Franz Kafka and his Metamorphosis)