Franz Kafka was a German-speaking Bohemian Jewish novelist and writer from Prague. He is widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typically features isolated protagonists facing bizarre or surrealistic predicaments and incomprehensible socio-bureaucratic powers. It has been interpreted as exploring themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity. His best known works include the novella The Metamorphosis and novels The Trial and The Castle. The term Kafkaesque has entered English to describe absurd situations like those depicted in his writing.
The Trial is a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best-known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor to the reader. Heavily influenced by Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, Kafka even went so far as to call Dostoevsky a blood relative. Like Kafka's two other novels, The Castle and Amerika, The Trial was never completed, although it does include a chapter which appears to bring the story to an intentionally abrupt ending.
Metamorphosis is a novella written by Franz Kafka and first published in 1915. One of Kafka's best-known works, Metamorphosis tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect and subsequently struggles to adjust to this new condition. The novella has been widely discussed among literary critics, who have offered varied interpretations. In popular culture and adaptations of the novella, the insect is commonly depicted as a cockroach.
Max Brod was a Bohemian-born Israeli author, composer, and journalist.
Always Coming Home is a 1985 science fiction novel by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin. It is in parts narrative, pseudo-textbook and pseudo-anthropologist's record. It describes the life and society of the Kesh people, a cultural group who live in the distant future long after modern society has collapsed. It is presented by Pandora, who seems to be an anthropologist or ethnographer from the readers' contemporary culture, or a culture very close to it. Pandora describes the book as a protest against contemporary civilization, which the Kesh call "the Sickness of Man".
Yvette Cooper is a British politician serving as Shadow Home Secretary under Keir Starmer since 2021, having also served in the position under Ed Miliband from 2011 to 2015. She previously served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2008 to 2009 and Work and Pensions Secretary from 2009 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, previously Pontefract and Castleford, since 1997.
Kafka on the Shore is a 2002 novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Its 2005 English translation was among "The 10 Best Books of 2005" from The New York Times and received the World Fantasy Award for 2006. The book tells the stories of the young Kafka Tamura, a bookish 15-year-old boy who runs away from his Oedipal curse, and Satoru Nakata, an old, disabled man with the uncanny ability to talk to cats. The book incorporates themes of music as a communicative conduit, metaphysics, dreams, fate, and the subconscious.
Maria Restituta Kafka was an Austrian nurse of Czech descent and religious sister of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity. Executed by the government in Nazi-run Austria, she is honoured as a virgin and martyr in the Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II beatified her in 1998.
General Order No. 28 was a military decree made by Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler during the American Civil War. Following the Battle of New Orleans, Butler established himself as military commander of that city on May 1, 1862. Many of the city's inhabitants were strongly hostile to the Federal government, and many women in particular expressed this contempt by insulting Union troops.
“A Country Doctor” is a short story written in 1917 by Franz Kafka. It was first published in the collection of short stories of the same title. In the story, a country doctor makes an emergency visit to a sick patient on a winter night. The doctor faces absurd, surreal predicaments that pull him along and finally doom him.
San Donato Val di Comino is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Frosinone in the Italian region Lazio, located in the Comino Valley about 110 kilometres (68 mi) east of Rome and about 40 kilometres (25 mi) east of Frosinone.
Anna Sutherland Bissell (1846–1934) was a Canadian-American businesswoman who was the first female CEO in the United States. She was CEO of Bissell, known for its carpet sweepers and vacuum cleaners.
Betrachtung is a collection of eighteen short stories by Franz Kafka written between 1904 and 1912. It was Kafka's first published book, printed at the end of 1912 in the Rowohlt Verlag on an initiative by Kurt Wolff.
Lydia Darragh was an Irish woman said to have crossed British lines during the British occupation of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the American Revolutionary War, delivering information to George Washington and the Continental Army that warned them of a pending British attack. Contemporary sources claim Darragh's uncorroborated story is historically unsubstantiated.
Amphetamine is a 2010 Hong Kong film starring Byron Pang and Thomas Price. It revolves around the story of an ethnic Chinese fitness trainer, Kafka, who meets Daniel, a business executive. The film is directed by acclaimed Hong Kong Chinese filmmaker Scud, the production-crediting name of Danny Cheng Wan-Cheung. It was nominated for a Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival of 2010. It explores several themes traditionally regarded as 'taboo' in Hong Kong society in an unusually open, convention-defying way, and features full-frontal male nudity in several scenes. It is the third of seven publicly released films by Scud. The six other films are: City Without Baseball in 2008, Permanent Residence in 2009, Love Actually... Sucks! in 2011, Voyage in 2013, Utopians in 2015 and Thirty Years of Adonis in 2017. The eighth film, Apostles, was made in 2022, as was the ninth, Bodyshop, but neither has yet been released. The tenth and final film, Naked Nations: Hong Kong Tribe, is currently in production.
"The Knock at the Manor Gate" is a short story by Franz Kafka. It was published posthumously in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer. The first English translation by Willa and Edwin Muir was published by Martin Secker in London in 1933. It appeared in The Great Wall of China. Stories and Reflections.
"Up in the Gallery" is a short piece of fiction written by Franz Kafka. It was created between November 1916 and February 1917 and published in the collection Ein Landarzt in 1919. The story offers two versions of a scene in which a young man watches a circus ringmaster and a woman on horseback.
"The Married Couple" is a 1922 short story by Franz Kafka. It was published posthumously in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer. The first English translation by Willa and Edwin Muir was published by Martin Secker in London in 1933. It appeared in The Great Wall of China. Stories and Reflections.
"You're Undead to Me" is the fifth episode of the first season of The CW television series, The Vampire Diaries and the fifth episode of the series overall. It originally aired on October 8, 2009. The episode was written by Sean Reycraft and Gabrielle Stanton and directed by Kevin Bray.
"Isobel" is the 21st. episode of the first season of The CW television series, The Vampire Diaries and the 21st episode of the series overall. It originally aired on May 6, 2010. The episode was written by Caroline Dries and Brian Young and directed by J. Miller Tobin.
