He was not, however, particularly close to his mother.

Kafka strongly identified with his maternal ancestors because of their spirituality, intellectual distinction, piety, rabbinical learning, melancholy disposition, and delicate physical and mental constitution. After two brothers died in infancy, he became the eldest child and remained, for the rest of his life, conscious of his role as elder brother Ottla, the youngest of his three sisters, became the family member closest to him. Lifeįranz Kafka, the son of Julie Löwy and Hermann Kafka, a merchant, was born into a prosperous middle-class Jewish family.

He is famous for his novels The Trial, in which a man is charged with a crime that is never named, and The Metamorphosis, in which the protagonist wakes to find himself transformed into an insect.įranz Kafka, (born July 3, 1883, Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary -died June 3, 1924, Kierling, near Vienna, Austria), German-language writer of visionary fiction whose works-especially the novel Der Prozess (1925 The Trial) and the story Die Verwandlung (1915 The Metamorphosis)-express the anxieties and alienation felt by many in 20th-century Europe and North America.

SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!įranz Kafka’s work is characterized by anxiety and alienation, and his characters often face absurd situations.

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