Kafka and Existentialism

 Kafka is almost the opposite of an existentialist, at least the way Sartre defines the term. Sartre thought that there was no given meaning for experience (such as religion might provide) and was therefore for boldly giving meaning to one's own experience, creatively. Kafka's metier was all about the lingering doubt, or fear, that this is not enough... that, in fact, there IS a given meaning to one's experience, completely out of one's own control, and that it is a dark and terrifying and inscrutable meaning.

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