Dr. Prem Lata Chandra
Humanities
August 2021
In the literary lineages of Europe in the twentieth century, Franz Kafka has been acknowledged as the representative writer of existential thought. Kafka was not only aware of the long tradition of the philosophy, which examined the core concerns of human existence; rather he was well versed with the philosophical writings in this regard when he had embarked on writing. In his essay “Franz Kafka and Existentialism”, Jay Ciaccio refers to Kafka’s familiarity with Kierkegaard, who had philosophically articulated the issues of existentialism far earlier than the twentieth century existentialist philosophers, as follows: “Kafka had read Kierkegaard, identified with his ideas, and incorporated them in his work…” (Ciaccio, 77) Viewed from diverse perspectives, Kafka emerges as an existentialist writer who sought to give literary expression to the existentialist questions relating to guilt, freedom, absurdity, among others. More often than not, Kafka has hence also been studied in a comparative framework placing him vis-à-vis Dostoyevsky, Albert Camus, and Samuel Beckett. Jay Ciaccio remarks about Kafka: “However, no author has portrayed existentialism as clearly and creatively as Franz Kafka…A great many of his stories revolve around man’s existence and its meaning, or lack thereof, and his characters endure punishment without ever understanding the nature of their guilt…” (Ciaccio, 77) Kafka’s long story “The Metamorphosis” portrays many strains of the existential anguish and irony. Identifying this story as an epitomic representation of the existential literature, Ciaccio underlines: “Perhaps no other story so clearly displays Kafka as an existentialist writer than “The Metamorphosis”.” (Ciaccio, 77)
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