フランツ・カフカ（1883–1924）は、オーストリア＝ハンガリー帝国領プラハのドイツ語系ユダヤ人家庭に生まれた作家。プラハ大学で法学を学び、労働者傷害保険協会に勤務するかたわら、小説や短編を執筆した。官僚的な組織や理解不能な規則に翻弄され、周囲との意思疎通を失っていく人物を、現実と悪夢が入り交じる簡潔な文体で描いた。生前に発表された作品は限られ、『審判』や『城』などの未完作品は、原稿の焼却を求めたカフカの遺志に反して、友人マックス・ブロートによって死後に刊行された。代表作『変身』（原題 "Die Verwandlung"）では、ある朝、巨大な虫のような存在に変わったグレゴール・ザムザが働けなくなり、家族の生活を支える者から厄介者へと扱いを変えられていく過程を描いた。
Franz Kafka (1883–1924) was a German-language writer born into a Jewish family in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After studying law at the German University in Prague, he worked at the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute while writing fiction in his spare time. His stories depict individuals trapped by bureaucratic institutions, incomprehensible rules, and failed communication in a style that blends precise observation with the logic of a nightmare. Only a limited portion of his work appeared during his lifetime; unfinished novels including "The Trial" and "The Castle" were published after his death by his friend Max Brod, contrary to Kafka’s request that his manuscripts be destroyed. In his representative work, "The Metamorphosis" ("Die Verwandlung"), the traveling salesman Gregor Samsa awakens transformed into a monstrous vermin and is gradually recast by his family from their provider into a burden they want removed.
