The Kafkaesque Layer in the Works of Lucas Linder

Identificator

EDN: RYPULV ; УДК: 821.112.2

Authors

Bekin Ilya Andreevich, postgraduate student of the Department of Romance and Germanic Languages, Translation, Foreign Literature and Intercultural Communication, Nizhny Novgorod State Linguistic University n. a. N. A. Dobrolyubov. Russia, Nizhny Novgorod. E‑mail: bekinia@lunn.ru

Journal

HERALD OF HUMANITARIAN EDUCATION №1 (41), 2026

Section

PHILOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Pages

156-164

Abstract

The paper explores the reception of F. Kafka's work by the modern Swiss playwright and novelist Lukas Linder. The relevance of this study lies in its introduction to scholarly discourse of the little‑studied work of contemporary Swiss writer Lukas Linder and its contribution to understanding the persistence of the "Kafkaesque" tradition in 21st‑century literature and its role in shaping artistic responses to the challenges of contemporary culture. The aim of the study is to identify characteristic ideological, thematic, motivic, and stylistic similarities in the works of both authors. It is concluded that, in Linder's case, one can speak of a "Kafkaesque layer" in his texts. An analysis of Kafka's short stories and novels and Linder's plays reveals that the characters of the young Swiss writer and the Prague classic follow a similar pattern: they are outwardly weak characters, unable to withstand the pressure of dominant society and its representatives, consciously rejecting material well‑being. At the same time, they are also convinced "ideologists" who see such expressions of indomitable strength as a grave danger to the future of humanity. Both authors also share a common understanding of the comic: through paradoxes, absurdism, and travesty, the characters of Kafka and Linder combat the danger of the total dehumanization of culture. However, a closer analysis suggests that the Swiss playwright's ironic dystopia offers great hope for the possibility of averting a humanitarian apocalypse. The theoretical basis of this work is provided by works in comparative literature. The study also employs close reading.

Keywords

Lukas Linder Kafkaesque tradition kafkaesk grotesque absurdity irony

Recieved

12.02.2025

Published

03.06.2026

References

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