Kafkaesque

From Kafka +‎ -esque, after writer Franz Kafka.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌkæfkəˈɛsk/, (intrusive R) /ˌkæfkəˈɹɛsk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌkɑfkəˈɛsk/

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• Rhymes: -ɛsk
• Hyphenation: Kaf‧ka‧esque

Kafkaesque (comparative more Kafkaesque, superlative most Kafkaesque)

1. 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.

2. Marked by surreal distortion and often a sense of looming danger.
3. In the manner of something written by Franz Kafka.

• Kafkaian
• Kafkatrap
• Kafkian

• Dickensian
• Orwellian