Word of the Day

: November 21, 2016

Kafkaesque

adjective kahf-kuh-ESK

What It Means

: of, relating to, or suggestive of Franz Kafka or his writings; especially : having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality

Kafkaesque in Context

"Dealing with the Kafkaesque health system, for example, would be enough to make anyone 'agitated, aggressive, irritable or temperamental.'" — Logan Jenkins, The San Diego Union Tribune, 27 July 2016

"I think the ultimate nightmare is for you to get into a Kafkaesque situation where you know you haven't done anything wrong . . . but for some reason you are not listened to and you are not being believed." — Lee Child, quoted in The Philadelphia Inquirer, 19 Oct. 2016

Did You Know?

Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was a Czech-born German-language writer whose surreal fiction vividly expressed the anxiety, alienation, and powerlessness of the individual in the 20th century. Kafka's work is characterized by nightmarish settings in which characters are crushed by nonsensical, blind authority. Thus, the word Kafkaesque is often applied to bizarre and impersonal administrative situations where the individual feels powerless to understand or control what is happening.