Kafka and Dystopia - An analysis of an overarching sense of despondency and tragedy democratization in Kafka’s The Trial

Abstract

The modern nation state, with its system of social control has the power to relegate the individual to the naught. One of the most important novelists of the twentieth century, Franz Kafka’s work went on to be identified with a mood that is infused with grimness and bleakness, uncertainty and an ensuing sense of discomfort. This is what birthed the term “Kafkaesque”, and it is also used in real-life situations fraught with an unnerving environment. It is easy to gauge from the premise in Kafka’s works, particularly The Trial, a feeling of existential angst and dread seeping in the already forlorn setting. This paper seeks to explore the dystopian realm that Kafka engineers in his works and how it is telling of the large scale annihilation that was to rock the world in the shape of the World Wars.