full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Noah Tavlin: What makes something "Kafkaesque"?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


"Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K. He knew he had done nothing wrong, but one morning, he was arrested." Thus begins "The Trial," one of author Franz Kafka's most well-known nevlos. K, the piogrstoant, is arrested out of nowhere and made to go through a bewildering pesorcs where neither the cause of his arrest, nor the nature of the judicial proceedings are made clear to him.

This sort of scenario is considered so characteristic of Kafka's work that soralchs came up with a new word for it. “Kafkaesque” has entered the vernacular to dicsebre unnecessarily complicated and frustrating experiences; like being forced to navigate labyrinths of bureaucracy. But does standing in a long line to fill out confusing pearrowpk really carptue the richness of Kafka's vision? Beyond the word's casual use, what makes something Kafkaesque?

Open Cloze


"Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K. He knew he had done nothing wrong, but one morning, he was arrested." Thus begins "The Trial," one of author Franz Kafka's most well-known ______. K, the ___________, is arrested out of nowhere and made to go through a bewildering _______ where neither the cause of his arrest, nor the nature of the judicial proceedings are made clear to him.

This sort of scenario is considered so characteristic of Kafka's work that ________ came up with a new word for it. “Kafkaesque” has entered the vernacular to ________ unnecessarily complicated and frustrating experiences; like being forced to navigate labyrinths of bureaucracy. But does standing in a long line to fill out confusing _________ really _______ the richness of Kafka's vision? Beyond the word's casual use, what makes something Kafkaesque?

Solution


  1. novels
  2. protagonist
  3. capture
  4. describe
  5. paperwork
  6. process
  7. scholars

Original Text


"Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K. He knew he had done nothing wrong, but one morning, he was arrested." Thus begins "The Trial," one of author Franz Kafka's most well-known novels. K, the protagonist, is arrested out of nowhere and made to go through a bewildering process where neither the cause of his arrest, nor the nature of the judicial proceedings are made clear to him.

This sort of scenario is considered so characteristic of Kafka's work that scholars came up with a new word for it. “Kafkaesque” has entered the vernacular to describe unnecessarily complicated and frustrating experiences; like being forced to navigate labyrinths of bureaucracy. But does standing in a long line to fill out confusing paperwork really capture the richness of Kafka's vision? Beyond the word's casual use, what makes something Kafkaesque?

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. arrest
  2. arrested
  3. author
  4. begins
  5. bewildering
  6. bureaucracy
  7. capture
  8. casual
  9. characteristic
  10. clear
  11. complicated
  12. confusing
  13. considered
  14. describe
  15. entered
  16. fill
  17. forced
  18. franz
  19. frustrating
  20. josef
  21. judicial
  22. kafkaesque
  23. knew
  24. labyrinths
  25. lies
  26. line
  27. long
  28. morning
  29. nature
  30. navigate
  31. novels
  32. paperwork
  33. proceedings
  34. process
  35. protagonist
  36. richness
  37. scenario
  38. scholars
  39. sort
  40. standing
  41. telling
  42. trial
  43. unnecessarily
  44. vernacular
  45. vision
  46. word
  47. work
  48. wrong