ABSTRACT
Kafka’s work first came into prominence after his death, partly through the efforts of his friend and literary executor Max Brod and partly through the influential writings of foreign admirers such as the French existentialist Albert Camus. During his lifetime Kafka only published some of his shorter fiction, leaving the manuscripts of his three major novels unfinished and much of his other work in a form that was evidently not meant for publication. He never was able to support himself with his writing, working for most of his adult life as an executive in the ield of workman’s compensation insurance. He had qualified himself for such employment by successfully completing university training in law, a ield that, although he professed to have little interest in or aptitude for it, informs much of his fiction (e.g., “Vor dem Gesetz” [1915; “Before the Law”] and Der Prozeß [1925; The Trial]).
