湖边社【每日一词】Kafkaesque - adj. extremely unpleasant, frightening, and confusing, and similar to situations described in the novels of Franz Kafka（奥地利小说家）卡夫卡作品风格的；恐怖怪诞的；超现实的；恐怖的；especially : having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality 例词：Kafkaesque bureaucratic delays
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Kafkaesque Literature
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.
Examples of Kafkaesque in a Sentence
1 And Nagayama’s nervy portrayal, like a cosmic baton of Kafkaesque anguish handed off to him, keeps us just as riveted to a possible injustice. —Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 1 Dec. 2023
2 The sheer volume of open warrants creates a Kafkaesque web of suspicion over people who share common names, regardless of jurisdiction or availability of complete information. —WIRED, 14 Sep. 2023
3 Each says a tick bite — about seven years ago for Georgina, the mom, and 15 for Madison — thrust them into the Kafkaesque world of chronic Lyme disease. —Kay Lazar, BostonGlobe.com, 29 Aug. 2023
4 He is caught up in a Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare.
5 The urban landscape is invested with a nightmarish, Kafkaesque bleakness.