Austrian Anarchists - Franz Kafka, Gabriel Kuhn, Josef Peukert, Leopold Kohr, Martin Buber, Otto Gross (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 19. Chapters: Franz Kafka, Gabriel Kuhn, Josef Peukert, Leopold Kohr, Martin Buber, Otto Gross. Excerpt: Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 - 3 June 1924) was an influential German-language writer of novels and short stories, regarded by critics as one of the most influential authors of the 20th century. Kafka was a Modernist and heavily influenced other genres, including existentialism. His works, such as "" ("The Metamorphosis"), (The Trial), and (The Castle), are filled with the themes and archetypes of alienation, physical and psychological brutality, parent-child conflict, characters on a terrifying quest, and mystical transformations. Kafka was born into a middle-class, German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and trained as a lawyer. After completing his legal education, Kafka obtained employment with an insurance company. He began to write short stories in his spare time, and for the rest of his life complained about the little time he had to devote to what he came to regard as his calling. He also regretted having to devote so much attention to his ("day job," literally "bread job"). Kafka preferred to communicate by letter; he wrote hundreds of letters to family and close female friends, including his father, his fiancee Felice Bauer, and his youngest sister Ottla. He had a complicated and troubled relationship with his father that had a major impact on his writing, and he was conflicted over his Jewishness and felt it had little to do with him, although it heavily influenced his writing. Only a few of Kafka's works were published during his lifetime: the story collections (Contemplation) and (A Country Doctor), and individual stories (such as "") in literary magazines. He prepared the story collection (A Hunger Artist) for print, but it was not published until after his death. Kafka's...