What language did Franz Kafka write in? Brief biography of Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka is one of the brightest phenomena in world literature. Those readers who are familiar with his works have always noted some kind of hopelessness and doom in the texts, seasoned with fear. Indeed, during the years of his active work (the first decade of the 20th century), all of Europe was carried away by a new philosophical trend, which later took shape as existentialism, and this author did not stand aside. That is why all his works can be interpreted as some attempts to realize one's existence in this world and beyond. But back to where it all began.

So Franz Kafka was a Jewish boy. He was born in July 1883, and, it is clear that at that time the persecution of this people had not reached its climax, but there was already a certain dismissive attitude in society. The family was quite wealthy, the father kept his own shop and was mainly a haberdashery wholesaler. Mother did not come from the poor either. Kafka's maternal grandfather was a brewer, and quite famous in his area and even rich. Although the family was purely Jewish, they preferred to speak Czech, and they lived in the former Prague ghetto, and at that time in the small district of Josefov. Now this place is already attributed to the Czech Republic, but during Kafka's childhood it belonged to Austria-Hungary. That is why the mother of the future great writer preferred to speak exclusively in German.

In general, even as a child, Franz Kafka knew several languages ​​at once, he could speak and write fluently in them. He gave preference, like Julia Kafka herself (mother), also to German, but he actively used both Czech and French, but he practically did not speak his native language. And only when he reached the age of twenty years and faced closely with Jewish culture, the writer became interested in Yiddish. But he did not specifically teach him.

The family was very large. In addition to Franz, Herman and Julia Kafka had five more children, and only three boys and three girls. The eldest was just a future genius. However, his brothers did not live up to two years, but the sisters remained. They lived quite amicably. And they were not allowed to quarrel over various trifles. In the family, age-old traditions were very honored. Since “kafka” is translated from Czech as “jackdaw”, the image of this bird was considered a family coat of arms. And Gustav himself had his own business, and it was the silhouette of a jackdaw that flaunted on branded envelopes.

The boy received a good education. At first he studied at school, then moved to the gymnasium. But his education did not end there. In 1901, Kafka entered the Charles University in Prague, from which he graduated with a doctorate in law. But on this, in fact, a career in the profession ended. For this man, as for a true genius, the main business of his whole life was literary creativity, it healed the soul and was a joy. Therefore, Kafka did not move anywhere along the career ladder. As after university, he entered a low position in the insurance department, so he left the same one in 1922, just two years before his death. A terrible disease gnawed at his body - tuberculosis. The writer struggled with her for several years, but to no avail, and in the summer of 1924, just a month before his birthday (41 years old), Franz Kafka died. The cause of such an early death is still considered not the disease itself, but exhaustion due to the fact that he could not swallow food due to severe pain in the larynx.

The formation of character and personal life

Franz Kafka as a person was very notorious, complex and rather difficult to communicate with. His father was very despotic and tough, and the peculiarities of upbringing influenced the boy in such a way that he only became more withdrawn into himself. Uncertainty also appeared, the same one that we will see through more than once in his works. From childhood, Franz Kafka showed a need for constant writing, and it resulted in numerous diary entries. It is thanks to them that we know how insecure and fearful this person was.

Relations with the father did not work out initially. Like any writer, Kafka was a vulnerable person, sensitive and constantly reflecting. But the stern Gustav could not understand this. He, a true entrepreneur, demanded a lot from his only son, and such an upbringing resulted in numerous complexes and Franz's inability to build strong relationships with other people. In particular, work was hell for him, and in his diaries the writer complained more than once about how hard it was for him to go to work and how fiercely he hated his superiors.

But it did not go well with women either. For a young man, the time from 1912 to 1917 can be described as first love. Unfortunately, unsuccessful, like all subsequent ones. The first bride, Felicia Bauer, is the same girl from Berlin with whom Kafka broke off his engagement twice. The reason was a complete mismatch of characters, but not only that. The young man was insecure in himself, and it was mainly because of this that the novel developed mainly in letters. Of course, the distance was also to blame. But, anyway, in his epistolary love adventure, Kafka created an ideal image of Felicia, very far from a real girl. Because of this, the relationship collapsed.

The second bride is Yulia Vokhrytsek, but with her everything was even more fleeting. Having hardly entered into an engagement, Kafka himself terminated it. And just a few years before his own death, the writer had some kind of romantic relationship with a woman named Melena Yesenskaya. But here the story is rather dark, because Melena was married and had a somewhat scandalous reputation. In combination, she was the main translator of the works of Franz Kafka.

Kafka is a recognized literary genius not only of his time. Even now, through the prism of modern technology and the rapid pace of life, his creations seem incredible and continue to amaze already quite sophisticated readers. They are especially attracted by the uncertainty characteristic of this author, the fear of the existing reality, the fear of taking at least one step and the famous absurdity. A little later, after the death of the writer, existentialism passed through the world in a solemn procession - one of the directions of philosophy, trying to realize the significance of human existence in this mortal world. Kafka found only the birth of this worldview, but his work is literally saturated with it. Probably, life itself pushed Kafka to just such creativity.

The incredible story that happened to salesman Gregor Samsa in many ways echoes the life of the author himself - a closed, insecure ascetic, prone to eternal self-condemnation.

Absolutely “Process”, which actually “created” his name for the culture of the world postmodern theater and cinema of the second half of the 20th century.

It is noteworthy that during his lifetime this modest genius did not become famous in any way. Several stories were published, but they did not bring anything but a small profit. Meanwhile, novels were gathering dust on the tables, the very ones that the whole world will talk about later, and will not stop until now. This is the famous "Process", "Castle", - they all saw the light only after the death of their creators. And they were published exclusively in German.

And this is how it happened. Already before his death, Kafka called his trustee, a person quite close to him, a friend, Max Brod. And he made a rather strange request to him: to burn all the literary heritage. Leave nothing, destroy to the last leaf. However, Brod did not listen, and instead of burning them, he published them. Surprisingly, most of the unfinished works pleased the reader, and soon the name of their author became known. However, some of the works did not see the light of day, because they were nevertheless destroyed.

This is the tragic fate of Franz Kafka. He was buried in the Czech Republic, but in the New Jewish Cemetery, in the family grave of the Kafka family. The works published during his lifetime were only four collections of short prose: "Contemplation", "Country Doctor", "God" and "Kary". In addition, Kafka managed to publish the first chapter of his most famous work "America" ​​- "Missing", as well as a small part of very short author's works. They did not attract practically any attention of the public, and did not bring anything to the writer. Glory overtook him only after death.

Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924) - a famous German writer, a classic of literature of the twentieth century. During his lifetime he was not deservedly appreciated. Almost all of the famous works of the writer were published after his untimely death.

Childhood

The future writer was born in Prague. He was the first of six children in a fairly wealthy Jewish family. Two of his brothers died in early childhood, leaving only his sisters. Kafka Sr. was a successful merchant. He made a good fortune selling haberdashery. Mother came from wealthy brewers. Thus, despite the lack of titles and belonging to high society, the family was never in need.

As soon as Franz was six years old, he began to attend elementary school. In those years, no one doubted the need for education. The boy's parents, on the example of their own lives, perfectly understood his importance.

Franz studied well. He was a modest and well-mannered child, invariably neatly dressed and courteous, so adults always treated him favorably. At the same time, a lively mind, knowledge, sense of humor attracted peers to the boy.

Of all the subjects, Franz was initially most fascinated by literature. In order to be able to discuss what he read and share his thoughts, he initiated the organization of literary meetings. They were popular. Inspired by this, Kafka decided to go ahead and create his own theater group. Most of all, his friends were surprised by this. They knew perfectly well how shy their companion was and not quite sure of himself. Therefore, his desire to play on stage caused bewilderment. However, Franz could always count on support.

Study, work

In 1901, Kafka graduated from the gymnasium and received a matriculation certificate. He had to decide on future activities. Having doubted for some time, the young man chose the law and went to comprehend its complexities at Charles University. It cannot be said that it was only his decision. Rather, a compromise with his father, who was going to involve him in the trade.

Relations with the despotic father of the young man developed poorly. In the end, Franz left his home and lived for many years in rented apartments and rooms, living from penny to penny. After graduating from university, Kafka was forced to get a job as an official in the insurance department. It was a good place, but not for him.

The young man was not made for this kind of work. In his dreams, he saw himself as a writer, and devoted all his free time to studying literature and his own creativity. In the latter, he saw only an outlet for himself, not for a moment recognizing the artistic value of his works. He was so embarrassed by them that he even bequeathed to his friend to destroy all his literary experiments in case of death.

Kafka was a very sick person. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis. In addition, the writer was tormented by frequent migraines and insomnia. Most experts agree that these problems had psychological roots that go back to childhood, family and relationships with the father. Be that as it may, but for most of his life Kafka was in an endless depression. This is very evident in his work.

Relationships with women

Kafka never married. However, there were women in his life. For a long time, the writer had a relationship with Felicia Bauer. She clearly wanted to marry him, because the girl was not embarrassed by the broken engagement and the fact that he soon proposed to her again. However, the wedding did not end this time either. Kafka changed his mind again.

These events can also be explained by the fact that young people communicated mainly by correspondence. Based on the letters, Kafka created in his imagination the image of a girl who in reality turned out to be completely different.

The greatest love of the writer was Milena Yesenskaya. For the 20s of the last century, she was an incredibly free and self-sufficient person. A translator and journalist, Milena saw a talented writer in her lover. She was one of the few with whom he shared his work. It seemed that their romance could develop into something more. However, Milena was married.

At the very end of his life, Kafka began an affair with nineteen-year-old Dora Diamant.

Creation

During his lifetime, Kafka published only a small number of short stories. He would not have done this if not for his close friend Max Brod, who always tried to support the writer and believed in his talent. It was to him that Kafka bequeathed to destroy all written works. However, Brod did not. On the contrary, he sent all the manuscripts to the printer.

Soon the name of Kafka thundered. Readers and critics highly appreciated everything that was saved from the fire. Unfortunately, Dora Diamant still managed to destroy some of the books she got.

Death

In his diaries, Kafka often speaks of fatigue from constant illness. He directly expresses the certainty that he will not live more than forty years. And he turned out to be right. In 1924 he was gone.

The Jewish roots of Franz Kafka did not prevent him from mastering the German language perfectly and even writing his works in it. During his lifetime, the writer published little, but after his death, Kafka's relatives published his works, despite the direct prohibition of the writer. How did Franz Kafka, the master of word formation, live and work?

Kafka: a biography

The author was born in the summer: July 3, 1883 in Prague. His family lived in a former ghetto for Jews. Father Herman had his own small business and was a wholesaler. And mother Julia was the heiress of a wealthy brewer and spoke German very well.

Kafka's two brothers and three sisters made up his entire family. The brothers died at an early age, and the sisters died in later years in concentration camps. In addition to the German language taught by his mother, Kafka knew Czech and French.

In 1901, Franz graduated from the gymnasium, then received a matriculation certificate. Five years later, he received a diploma from Charles University. So he became a doctor of law. Weber himself supervised the writing of his dissertation.

In the future, Kafka worked all his life in one insurance department. He retired early due to health problems. Kafka did not like to work in his specialty. He kept diaries where he described his hatred for his boss, colleagues and all his activities in general.

During the period of his ability to work, Kafka significantly improved working conditions in factories throughout the Czech Republic. At work, he was highly valued and respected. In 1917, doctors diagnosed Kafka with tuberculosis. After the diagnosis, he was not allowed to retire for another 5 years, as he was a valuable employee.

The writer had a difficult character. He broke up with his parents early. He lived in poverty and asceticism. He wandered a lot in removable closets. He suffered not only from tuberculosis, but also from migraines, and also suffered from insomnia and impotence. Kafka himself led a healthy lifestyle. In his youth, he went in for sports, tried to stick to a vegetarian diet, but could not recover from his ailments.

Kafka often engaged in self-flagellation. He was dissatisfied with himself and the world around him. I wrote a lot about it in my diaries. Even at school, Franz helped organize performances and promoted the literary circle. On those around him he gave the impression of a neat young man with a great sense of humor.

Franz has been friends with Max Brod since school days. This friendship continued until the writer's sudden death. Kafka's personal life did not develop. Some researchers believe that this state of affairs was rooted in his relationship with his despot father.

Franz was engaged to Felicia Bauer twice. But he never married the girl. After all, her image, which the writer came up with, did not correspond to the character of a living person.

Then Kafka had an affair with Yulia Vokhrytsek. But here, too, family life did not work out. After Franz met with a married journalist Elena Yesenskaya. During that period, she helped him edit his works.

After 1923, Kafka's health deteriorated greatly. Tuberculosis of the larynx developed rapidly. The writer could not eat and breathe normally, he was exhausted. In 1924, his relatives took him to a sanatorium. But this measure did not help. So on June 3, Franz Kafka passed away. He was buried at the New Cemetery for Jews in Olshany.

The works of the writer and his work

• "Contemplation";
• "Fireman";
• "Rural doctor";
• "Hunger";
• "Kara".

Collections and novels were selected by Franz for publication in his own hand. Before his death, Kafka expressed a desire that his loved ones destroy the rest of the manuscripts and diaries. Some of his works really went to the fire, but many remained and were published after the death of the author.

The novels "America", "The Castle" and "The Trial" were never completed by the author, but the existing chapters were published anyway. Eight workbooks of the author have also been preserved. They contain sketches and sketches of works that he never wrote.

What did Kafka, who lived a difficult life, write about? Fear of the world and the judgment of the Higher Powers pervades all the works of the author. His father wanted his son to become the heir to his business, and the boy did not meet the expectations of the head of the family, so he was subject to his father's tyranny. This left a serious imprint on Franz's worldview.

Written in the style of realism, the novels convey everyday life without unnecessary embellishments. The author's style may seem dry and clerical, but the plot twists in the stories and novels are quite non-trivial.

There is much left unsaid in his work. The writer leaves the reader the right to independently interpret some situations in the works. In general, Kafka's works are filled with tragedy and oppressive atmosphere. The author wrote some of his works together with his friend Max Brod.

For example, "The first long trip by rail" or "Richard and Samuel" is a small prose of two friends who have supported each other all their lives.

Franz Kafka did not receive much recognition as a writer during his lifetime. But his works, published after his death, were appreciated. The Trial is the most critically acclaimed novel from around the world. He also fell in love with readers. Who knows how many beautiful works burned in the fire on the orders of the author himself. But what has reached the public is considered a magnificent addition to the postmodern style in art and literature.

Kafka was born on July 3, 1883 in the Czech Republic. The first education in the biography of Franz Kafka was received in elementary school (from 1889 to 1893). The next step in education was the gymnasium, which Franz graduated from in 1901. Then he entered the Charles University in Prague, after which he became a doctor of law.

Having started working in the insurance department, Kafka worked all his career in small bureaucratic positions. Despite his passion for literature, most of Kafka's writings were published after his death, and he disliked his official work. Kafka fell in love several times. But things never went beyond novels, the writer was not married.

Most of Kafka's works are written in German. His prose reflects the writer's fear of the outside world, anxiety and uncertainty. So in the “Letter to the Father” they found an expression of the relationship between Franz and his father, which had to be broken early.

Kafka was a sickly man, but he tried to resist all his ailments. In 1917, Kafka's biography suffered a serious illness (pulmonary hemorrhage), as a result of which the writer began to develop tuberculosis. It was for this reason that Franz Kafka died in June 1924 while undergoing treatment.

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(1883-1924) Austrian writer

This is probably the strangest figure in European literature of the 20th century. A Jew by origin, a Praguer by birth and residence, a German writer by language and an Austrian writer by cultural tradition, Franz Kafka experienced indifference to his work during his lifetime and no longer caught the time when his canonization took place. True, both of them are somewhat exaggerated. He was noticed and appreciated by such famous writers as G. Hesse, T. Mann, B. Brecht and others.

Three unfinished novels by Franz Kafka became available to readers after his death. The Trial was published in 1925, The Castle in 1926, and America in 1927. Now his legacy is ten voluminous volumes.

The biography of this man is surprisingly not rich in events, at least in external events. Franz Kafka was born into a family of a haberdashery wholesaler in Prague, a Jew by nationality. Welfare gradually grew, but the concepts and relationships within the family remained the same, petty-bourgeois. All interests were focused on their work. The mother was wordless, and the father constantly boasted of the humiliations and misfortunes that he had endured before he made his way into the people, not like the children who received everything undeservedly, for nothing. The nature of relationships in the family can be judged at least by this fact. When Franz wrote the “Letter to Father” in 1919, he himself did not dare to give it to the addressee and asked his mother about it. But she, too, was afraid to do so and returned the letter to her son with a few comforting words.

The bourgeois family for every future artist, who even in his youth feels like a stranger in this environment, is the first barrier that he must overcome. Kafka could not do this. He never learned to resist an alien environment.

Franz graduated from the German gymnasium in Prague. Then, in 1901-1905, he studied law at the university and listened to lectures on art history and German studies. In 1906-1907, Kafka completed an internship at a law office and the Prague City Court. From October 1907 he served in a private insurance company, and in 1908 he improved in this specialty at the Prague Commercial Academy. Although Franz Kafka had a doctorate, he held modest and low-paid positions, and from 1917 he could not work at full strength at all, because he fell ill with tuberculosis.

Kafka decided to call off his second engagement to Felicia Bauer, quit his job and move to the countryside with his sister Ottla. In one of the letters of this period, he conveys his restless state in this way:

« Secretly, I believe that my disease is not tuberculosis at all, but my general bankruptcy. I thought that it would still be possible to hold on, but it is no longer possible to hold on. The blood does not come from the lungs, but from a wound inflicted by a regular or decisive blow from one of the wrestlers. This wrestler has now received support - tuberculosis, support as enormous as, say, a child finds in the folds of his mother's skirt. What does the other want now? Has the struggle not reached a glorious end? This is TB and this is the end».

Franz Kafka was very sensitive to what he constantly had to face in life - injustice, humiliation of a person. He was devoted to genuine creativity and bowed before Goethe, Tolstoy, considered himself a student of Kleist, an admirer of Strindberg, was an enthusiastic admirer of Russian classics, not only Tolstoy, but also Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Gogol, which he wrote about in his diaries.

But at the same time, Kafka, as it were, saw himself with a “second sight” and felt his dissimilarity to everyone as ugliness, he perceived his “strangeness” as a sin and a curse.

Franz Kafka was tormented by the problems that were characteristic of Europe at the beginning of the century, his work is directly connected with only one, albeit a very influential trend in the literature of the 20th century - modernist.

All that Kafka wrote was his literary ideas, fragments, unfinished stories, dreams that were often not much different from his short stories, and sketches of short stories like dreams, reflections on life, on literature and art, on books read and performances seen, thoughts about writers, artists, actors - all this is a complete picture of his "fantastic inner life". Franz Kafka felt boundless loneliness, so painful and at the same time desirable. He was constantly tormented by fears - before life, before lack of freedom, but also before freedom too. Franz Kafka was afraid to change anything in his life and at the same time was burdened by her usual way of life. The writer with such poignancy revealed the incessant struggle with himself and with the surrounding reality that much in his novels and short stories, which, at first glance, seems to be the fruit of a bizarre, sometimes sick fantasy, is explained, reveals its realistic background, is revealed as purely autobiographical .

“He does not have the slightest shelter, shelter. Therefore, it is left to the mercy of everything from which we are protected. He is like naked among the dressed,” wrote Kafka’s friend, the Czech journalist Milena Yesenskaya.

Kafka idolized the work of Balzac. Once he wrote about him: “Balzac’s cane was inscribed:“ I break all barriers. On mine: "All obstacles break me." What we have in common is the word "everything".

Currently, more has been written about Kafka's work than about the work of any other writer of the 20th century. This is most often explained by the fact that Kafka is considered a prophetic writer. In some incomprehensible way, he managed to guess and even at the beginning of the century he wrote about what would happen in the following decades. Then the plots of his works seemed purely abstract and fictional, but some time later, much of what he wrote was fulfilled, and even in a more tragic form. Thus, the furnaces of Auschwitz surpassed the most sophisticated tortures described by him in the short story “In the Penal Colony” (1914).

Exactly the same, it would seem, abstract and inconceivable in its absurdity, the trial that Franz Kafka depicted in his novel “The Trial”, when an innocent person was sentenced to death, was then repeated many times and is still repeated in all countries of the world.

In his other novel - "America" ​​- Franz Kafka quite accurately predicted the further development of technical civilization with all its pluses and minuses, in which a person remains alone in a mechanized world. And Kafka's last novel, The Castle, also gives a fairly accurate picture of the omnipotence of the bureaucratic apparatus, which in fact replaces any democracy, despite the grotesqueness of the image.

In 1922 Kafka was forced to retire. In 1923, he carried out his long-planned "flight" to Berlin, where he intended to live as a free writer. But his health again deteriorated sharply, and he was forced to return to Prague. He died on the outskirts of Vienna in 1924. The writer was buried in the center of Prague at the Jewish cemetery.

Expressing his last will to his friend and executor Max Brod, Kafka repeatedly repeated that, except for five published books and a new novel prepared for publication, "everything without exception" should be burned. Now it is pointless to discuss whether M. Brod acted well or badly, who nevertheless violated the will of his friend and published all his manuscript heritage. The deed is done: everything that was written by Franz Kafka has been published, and readers have the opportunity to judge for themselves the work of this extraordinary writer, reading and rereading his works.