Franz Kafka

July 3rd, 1883 - June 3rd, 1924

Czech novelist Franz Kafka was a man whose deliberate use of language would come to define key aspects of his life. Having known German, Czech, and Hebrew, these three represented the continuous struggle for identity he faced up until his death. Through examining the context of his use of these languages, we can see just how significant each one was to him.

In late nineteenth/early twentieth-century Prague, antisemitism was a very real concern for Jewish families. Many, including Kafka’s family, l