franz kafka wrote during which era(i.e.romantic,gothic,etc.)?

Answer 1

He's no part of the Beat generation, I'll tell you that much. He's a modern novelist, like other user pointed out, most critics don't dare to classify him as anything at all, but some say that he's part of what was called "Expressionism", a short-lived artistic trend in the first 2 decades of the 20th century, a trend that manifested itself in music, paint, arquitecture and literature of course, the poet Georg Trakl being the most important lyrical author of this period. According to the critics that classify Kafka as member of the Expressionist group, his narrative style, (a classic prose charged with nonsensical situations) contrasts heavily with one of the previous trends of the 19th century, called Realism, a trend that strove to "imitate" life as it was, mainly critizicing society. Kafka is not modern in the sense of James Joyce, because his novels and short stories are not overflowing with references of Western Literature and because his prose is logical, completely cerebral, without any formal innovation, but his characters must face irrational, paradoxical situations (take the example of Blumfeld, one of his characters: he returns home and he finds two small balls that keep bouncing without end in front of him; instead of throwing them out or stopping them, he learns to live with them) Kafka could be an Expressionist because his characters seem to seek some kind of redemption or vital reward, and Expressionism is charged with many religious images, as though "reality" had stopped having importance (remember that war was imminent at the time)

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

F.Kafka, 1883-1924, The Beat Generation.
Virtually unknown during his lifetime, the works of Kafka have since been recognized as symbolizing modern man's anxiety-ridden and grotesque alienation in an unintelligible, hostile, or indifferent world. From a middle-class Jewish family he grew up under a domineering shopkeeper father, who impressed Kafka as an awesome patriarch. The feeling of impotence, was a syndrome that ran through his entire body of fiction. Kafka did well in a prestigious German high school in Prague and went on to receive a law degree in 1906. This allowed him to secure a livelihood that gave him time for writing, which he regarded as the essence--both blessing and curse--of his life

I hope this helps

Answer 3

The Beat Generation did not exist until Jack Kerouac and others about 1950. Kafka is modern literature, i.e., early 20th century. The definitition of a Beatnik is "A cat whose woman works full time."

Answer 4

Not mutually exclusive of anything, but the message of Kafka's prose is considered existentialist, which is a philosophical movement that focuses on the fact that human beings merely exist -- there is no purpose in life beyond existence.

If you want to look up a contemporary of his, there's Albert Camus.