Kafka, Franz

Austrian novelist. He wrote in German. His three unfinished allegorical novels Der Prozess/The Trial (1925), Das Schloss/The Castle (1926), and Amerika/America (1927) were posthumously published despite his instructions that they should be destroyed. His short stories include ‘Die Verwandlung/The Metamorphosis’ (1915), in which a man turns into a huge insect. His vision of lonely individuals trapped in bureaucratic or legal labyrinths can be seen as a powerful metaphor for modern experience.

Kafka's work has considerably influenced other modern writers, including Samuel Beckett and Albert Camus.