The Category of Anxiety in Short Prose: Slavko Grum and Franz Kafka

Abstract

This article provides a comparative analysis of the category of anxiety in the short prose of Slavko Grum (1901–1949) and Franz Kafka (1883–1924), a German Jew living in Prague. In Kafka’s short stories, anxiety is part of the narrative atmosphere because Kafka expressed his philosophical views through metaphors. Anxiety only comes truly alive in the reader’s perception. The narrative space is insecure; the world is irrational, dangerous, and presented as a threat. In Kafka, anxiety is also connected with the perception of time, reflecting captivity in time, and a premonition of an apocalyptic future or an approaching catastrophe. – In his autobiographic narrative fragments, Slavko Grum subjectivizes time and space, creating an anxious atmosphere. Here metaphysical anxiety is present as well, although it is more a reflection of an apocalyptic present with no chance of escape. In Grum’s works, anxiety is not triggered by the fear of death, but by the impossibility of escape and being trapped in the present. Grotesque stylization converts reality into dreams. In both Kafka’s and Grum’s short stories, anxiety is a metaphysical category, reflecting both the fear of existence and despair as the only truths of life.