Kafkaesque
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Kafka + -esque, after writer Franz Kafka.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌkæfkəˈɛsk/, (intrusive R) /ˌkæfkəˈɹɛsk/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˌkɑfkəˈɛsk/
Audio (US): (file) Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -ɛsk
- Hyphenation: Kaf‧ka‧esque
Adjective
[edit]Kafkaesque (comparative more Kafkaesque, superlative most Kafkaesque)
- Marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity.
- Kafkaesque bureaucracies
- 2001, David Flusser, Jesus (3d ed; Jerusalem: Magnes), →ISBN, page 250:
- In the end, Jesus is not only a Kafkaesque, lonely, holy man, abandoned in his death and despised by his own people, but his teaching is not even considered to be like that of the Jewish Sages.
- 2011, L. Donskis, Modernity in Crisis: A Dialogue on the Culture of Belonging:
- The world is increasingly becoming a Single Central Europe with its Kafkaesque anonymity, Musilesque human-traits-free individuality, or the divided individual without individuality and indivisibility, Orwellesque Newspeak and total control, if not manufacturing, of history.
- Marked by surreal distortion and often a sense of looming danger.
- In the manner of something written by Franz Kafka.
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]marked by menacing complexity
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