Was Franz Kafka Tubercular?

Abstract

This article subjects to critical review the pivotal issue of Kafka's life, his supposedly perennial struggle with and demise from tuberculosis before his forty-first birthday. Drawing on a biography in progress, it points out that although tuberculosis was taken very seriously in the pre-antibiotic age, Kafka and his family were never subjected to compulsory anti-tubercular measures, his freedom of movement and interaction with others was never restricted, and unperturbed he wilfully ignored tubercular cures. The reason for this inaction and indifference, it is argued, is that he was apparently never diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis and definitely did not die from it. The article suggests there must be an alternative explanation for his health woes, with possible significant implications for his writings.