Amerika (Kafka novel)

Amerika, also known as Der Verschollene or The Man Who Disappeared, was the first and incomplete novel written by Franz Kafka, published posthumously in 1927. It describes the bizarre wanderings of a sixteen-year-old European emigrant named Karl Rossman in the United States, who was forced to go to New York as a punishment for being seduced by a maid and travel there to meet and work with his uncle.

Related Topics:
Novel - Franz Kafka - 1927 - European - Emigrant - United States - Maid

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Fired and abandoned by his uncle and without any money in a strange world, he finds a job as an elevator operator working at the huge Hotel Occidental.

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The novel is more explicitly humorous and slightly more realistic than most of Kafka's works, but it shares the same motifs of an oppressive and intangible system putting the protagonist repeatedly in bizarre situations. Specifically, within Amerika, a scorned individual often must plead his innocence in front of remote and mysterious figures of authority.

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Amerika has certain similarities with Charles Dickens' David Copperfield (1850), of which Kafka said Amerika is "sheer imitation", and represents a unique interpretation of the Bildungsroman genre.

Related Topics:
Charles Dickens - David Copperfield - 1850 - Bildungsroman

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