Influence of Kafka on Future Writers, Analysis of His Style - Research Paper Example

? Influence of Kafka on future Franz Kafka was one of the influential of his time who had a strong impact on the twentieth century literature. His experiments in surrealism and magical realism techniques made his successors follow those narrative skills in their writings. The impact of the Czch writer can be estimated from the use of term “ Kafkaesque” which became a synonym to allude to the creative nuances of Kafka’s genius. Later generations came under the ambit of Kafkaesque and gleaned from the literary fruits of Kafka’s mind. Kafka impressed the coming generations of the novelists and story writers with his style, technique and characterization. His mastery of describing different psychological states of his characters in a bizarre way was further imitated by writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Camus, Bioy and many others. In the given lines we will trace the influence of this great writer on his followers in storytelling. Kafka’a influence on Bioy and Borges Adolfo Bioy Casares was an Argentine novelist whose novella The Invention of Morel gained much popularity. Bioy was famous for his fantastic stories based on curious blend of realism and fantasy. This technique seems to have sprung from magic realism technique of Kafka employed in his famous works Metamorphosis and The Castle. Bioy is all praise for “ Kafka’s arguments” which can be found woven into the structural unity of his plots. Bioy thinks that Kafka’s works are in a way a new genre of its own. Esposito finds that Bioy’s “ follow up to Morel, Escape plan contains certain nods to Kafka’s “ The Penal Colony”’’( par. 4). Borges declares that Kafka is the pioneer of twentieth century fiction and his lasting impact can be seen in the desire of the later generation to imitate the masters in their own writings. Borges confesses, “I have written stories in which I tried with great ambition but little success to be Kafka. There is one titled ‘The Library of Babel’ and others that were exercises in trying to be Kafka” ( Esposito par. 4). Influence of Kafka on Gabriel Garcia Marquez The great Columbian novelist was inspired by Czech writer when he read the translated version of Metamorphosis. The alienation and miserable plight of Kafka’s protagonist, Gregor Samsa, created so much sympathy in Marquez’s heart that his prompt response was to depict same alienation and the same unusual plot line in his own stories. He writes: As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.'...When I finished reading The Metamorphosis I felt an irresistible longing to live in that alien paradise. The day found me at the portable typewriter...attempting to write something that would resemble Kafka's poor bureaucrat changed into an enormous cockroach ( qtd. in Cannella par. 4). Kafka as creator of Absurd in literature Though the term Absurd is generally used in collocation with theatre or drama but the unusual and rambling plots and strange characterization also has been depicted in fiction as well. Sarkis, in this connection writes, “ Kafka is a perfect example of what he terms “The Absurd.” Although it was Kierkegaard who first used the term “Absurd” to describe awkward ideas in certain religions, Camus also uses this term when describing unusual plots in literature” (par. 3). But in fiction the absurd has been treated by Kafka magnificently. The later dramatis and fiction writer got so much from Kafka’s treatment of “ Absurd” in his writings. Kafka’s Talmudic style Talmud is related with Judaism and represents the text that is based on Rabbi’s teachings and their reflections on different topics of religion and morality. Taking a cue from this tradition Kafka invented his stories on the basis of parables in Talmudic styles. Suchoff gives reference from Kafka’s works where he has used Talmudic style (131). Kafka in his The Trial and The Castle employs parable style of storytelling and this style was further followed by later Hebrew writers like AhronApplefeld and S.Y. Agnon. Enigmatic influence of Kafka While throwing light on what he calls “enigmatic” influence of Kafka on modern fiction, Dissanayake remarks: Franz Kafka, unquestionably, is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. He is also one of the most enigmatic. He has had a profound impact on the growth of modern literatures in the East and the West. His writings compel us to re-examine the notions of alienation, disenchantment, the absurd, guilt, self-censure with fresh eyes. Many of his stories speak in the voice of the uneasy age ( par. 1). Kafka was modern in his themes as he knew the spirit of his times and had keen understanding of the alienation, disenchantment of the modern man. This theme of alienation remained a popular theme of the writers of the twentieth century. Sandback states that “ a great number of major modern writers— Sartre, Camus, Robbe-Grillet, Beckett, Ionesco, Borges, Agnon, and few others—have retained feature’s of Master’s wrok”(441). Kafkaesque Fredrik , R. Karl, a biographer of Franz Kafka,quotes,"What's Kafkaesque," he said in an interview in his Manhattan apartment, "is when you enter a surreal world in which all your control patterns, all your plans, the whole way in which you have configured your own behavior, begins to fall to pieces, when you find yourself against a force that does not lend itself to the way you perceive the world."You don't give up, you don't lie down and die. What you do is struggle against this with all of your equipment, with whatever you have. But of course you don't stand a chance. That's Kafkaesque” ( qtd in Edwards Para 2). The influence of Kafka was not limited to the European writers rather the impact was in the writings of Asian writers as well. Chinese writer Zhang Xinxin shows the debt of the great surrealist in her writings. Reviewing her work “ Orchid Madness” , Duke observes the influence of Kafa in her fiction in the “ nightmarish satire upon the greed and faddishness rampant in contemporary society. A surrealistic style emphasizes the absurdity of the subject; reality is rendered grotesques to reflect the distortion of values in an increasingly materialistic world” ( Wakeman and Daiyun 206). Kafka’s realism and magic realism “ Furnishings and sceneries of realism and modernism were often indistinguishable, and the boundaries between the two movements were extremely pourus” . Flubert shows the blend of two in his works and Kafka seems to have taken the path of Flaubert as he “ placed his narratives in the locales of contemporary bourgeois and petty –bourgeois life, especially during his early and middle period, in works such as “ The Judgment” , The Metamorphosis, and The Trial” (Sokel 38). From this realism, generated a new form of realism which blended in itself some elements of fantasy. This type of realism was termed as “ magical realism” and Kafka became the master of this type of realism. “ It was through the influence of Kafka on Jorge Luis Borges( who translated Kafka’s shorter fiction into Spanish) that magical realism as an amalgamation of realism and fantasy entered Latin America” ( Sanchez 20). This tradition was further adopted by Bioy Casares, Silvina Ocampo, Maria Luisa Bomal and Jose Bianco who imitated Kafka’s “ difficult art of bleding reality with phantasmal world of nightmares (20). To conclude we can say that Kafka’s style, plot and manipulation of different artistic techniques like use of surrealism and magic realism impressed many fiction writers of the twentieth century. The coinage of the word “Kafkaesque” alludes to the fact that Kafka was a role model for his successor and the writers like Marquez, Borges, Camus and Bioy benefited from the master and incorporated these techniques in their work. Kafka’s unusual plots, his psychic characters and his mystic treatment of different life events left lasting imprints on young Marquez and made him continue the journey of mysterious story telling on the paths of his predecessor— Franz Kafka . Borges’ attempts to imitate the great surrealist are also an indication of the admiration that Kafka held for his successors. Works Cited Cannella, Cara. "The Legacy of Franz Kafka As Seen Through His Impact on Gabriel Garcia Marquez." Biographile. Random House LCC, 1 July 2013. Web. 02 Dec. 2013. . Dissanayake, Wimal. "The Enigmatic Kafka and His Continuing Influence." The Enigmatic Kafka and His Continuing Influence. The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd., 29 Sept. 2013. Web. 03 Dec. 2013. . Edwards, Ivana. "The Essence of 'Kafkaesque'" The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Dec. 1991. Web. 02 Dec. 2013. . Esposito, Scott. "Latin America's Kafka: What a Sly Argentine Has in Common with a Tubercular Czech." The Quarterly Conversation. The Quarterly Conversation, 2008. Web. 02 Dec. 2013. . Hahn, Hannelore. The Influence of Franz Kafka on Three Novels by Gabriel Garci?a Ma?rquez. 1992. Print. Kamenetz, Rodger. Burnt Books: Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav and Franz Kafka. New York: Nextbook, 2010. Print. Sanchez, Maria R. N. Challenging Realities: Magic Realism in Contemporary American Women’s Fiction. Thesis. Universitat De Velencia, 2002. Velencia: Universitat De Velencia, 2002. Print. Sarkis, John. "The Works of Franz Kafka." Hub Pages. Hub Pages, 4 Aug. 2012. Web. 02 Dec. 2013. . Sokel, Walter H. "Kafka and Modernism." Franz Kafka. Comp. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1986. 37-52. Print. Suchoff, David Bruce. Kafka's Jewish Languages: The Hidden Openness of Tradition. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2012. Print. Wakeman, Carolyn, and Yue Daiyun. "Fiction's End: Zhan Xinxin's New Approaches to Creativity." Modern Chinese Women Writers: Critical Appraisals. Ed. Michael S.. Duke. London: M.E.Sharp Pulishers, 1989. 196-216. Print. Weinstein, Arnold. "After Kafka: The Influence of Kafka's Fiction by Shimon Sandbank." Comparative Literature Studies 29.4 (1992): 441-43. Print. Read More