Kafka(esque)

This article written by Alexander Provan in The Nation, takes a look at the Kafkaesque mystique of Franz Kafka. Most of us have an impression of the Kafkaesque (futility, overwhelming burocracy, impotence, a bit of the surreal, the fantastic, the mysterious). Actually, it's vague. Kafka's biography often plays a large role in how his work is interpreted. Even Kafka's face seems to be a stand in for his work. Our prejudices of his work form a large obstacle to reading him. Here in the illustration I've included many of Kafka's best known characters- Gregor Samsa climbing the curtain, the hunger artist in his cage, the talking chimp, horses from "A Country Doctor," Liberty with her sword instead of a torch. I wanted to make the picture weird enough to qualify as Kafkaesque, but it also needed to illustrate the term in a deliberate way. It's kind of a curtain call for all things "Kafkaesque".
Editor: John Palattella