ABSTRACT
The work of Franz Kafka has been characterized by a preoccupation with clocks, watches, and time, a preoccupation that penetrates into the very core and fabric of existence itself. Kafka confronts his reader on the most fundamental level with situations that challenge and disturb any steady and secure hold on life that is grounded in temporal order. His prose is a stark depiction of protagonists caught in the attempt to find stability and meaning where none exists. Even the process of reading Kafka's narratives is disquieting. His straightforward and direct language leaves us no time to find a comfortable stronghold before plunging us into a sequence of events that is deceptively and logically illogical. Kafka's time is representative of an age that in its frantic attempt to keep pace with its clocks has lost touch with its genuine self and does not truly comprehend that it is standing on the brink.
