Kafka at work : refractions of the Kafkaesque across the second half of the twentieth century

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the evolving influence and cultural significance of the Kafkaesque in the second half of the twentieth century, tracing its literary refractions across a diverse range of texts and discourse, with a particular focus on Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, J. M. Coetzee’s Life & Times of Michael K, and Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled, as it examines how the Kafkaesque persists and adapts across divergent geopolitical and narrative terrains. Beginning by acknowledging that the term has transcended its literary origins to become a widely recognised descriptor for situations marked by absurdity and bureaucratic oppression, this study first sets out to explore the roots of the Kafkaesque, arguing for a historically and theoretically grounded understanding of the term, and revisiting Kafka’s own texts to distil key thematic and formal elements. Through close reading of the three case studies, it will then demonstrate how Kafka’s legacy is not merely replicated but reconfigured, with Heller employing it for social commentary through satire set against a military backdrop; Coetzee engaging it as a vehicle for political critique under apartheid; and Ishiguro invoking it to map psychic fragmentation and existential drift. Subsequently, the study will delve more deeply into the possible reasons behind the pervasiveness of the Kafkaesque during this time. It engages with thinkers such as Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, and Theodor Adorno to contend that the enduring resonance of the Kafkaesque stems from its attuning to the ideological mechanisms of modernity and postmodernity. Ultimately, it concludes that the Kafkaesque remains of vital relevance to this very day, uniquely equipped to articulate the entanglements of power, selfhood, and systems that continue to define contemporary life.