Kafkaesque

[ kahf-kuh-esk ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adjective

relating to, characteristic of, or resembling the literary work of Franz Kafka; marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity: Kafkaesque bureaucracies.
the Kafkaesque terror of the endless interrogations;
Kafkaesque bureaucracies.

First recorded in 1945–50; Kafka + -esque

Political pressure, economic resources and the ability to navigate into a Kafkaesque bureaucracy play a determinant role.

He emerges from the horrors with a Kafkaesque account of life in the Chinese jails.

Frederick Deknatel on the vulgar Kafkaesque genius of Sonallah Ibrahim.

David Choe must have had a Kafkaesque morning, waking up to find himself changed in his bed into a monstrous millionaire.

Yet if his lonely experience in prison could be called Kafkaesque, then so too could his life before he was sentenced.

It is a Kafkaesque, sealed universe in which nothing is, as it appears to be.

April 24, 2024gallimaufry

[gal-uh-maw-free ]

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