Franz Kafka, Maker of Dreams

This study explores Franz Kafka’s fiction in terms of the author’s innovative dream technique. Sigmund Freud’s research into the unconscious life of dreams is employed to underpin a theory of dream composition in Kafka’s oeuvre. The book aims to provide a unique analytical perspective on the author’s narratives which will be of interest to academics working in the field of literature, psychology, philosophy and interdisciplinary studies. The book is also designed to appeal to a larger reading public, bearing in mind that “Kafkaesque” has become a household word due to the uncanny atmosphere of his tales. At the study’s philosophical base, however, are the ideas of existentialist thought. These leave the way open for the dream features to be extrapolated into speculative metaphysical areas, thus offering the reader not only an exposition of the dream form of the fiction, but also forays into the realm of ideas.