The Influence of Kafka on the Gothic

Kafka's writing seems to have reflected the darkness of his mind and the hopelessness that he felt. The museum's definition of Kafkaesque struck me in a way that seemed a bit Gothic-- that there is in fact a light at the end of the tunnel, and it is your job to reach for it. Part of this idea is that no one is going to simply hand you this, or even help you for that matter. Instead it is your job to go after the light. In Kafka's "The Castle", the endless winding street is the tunnel, and the castle is the light. K. spends the entirety of the story reaching for this light, and no one seems to be able to help him. The museum was incredibly disorientating. Everything was sensory overload, right down to the shape of the rooms and pathways. I feel like this was in an effort to show how Kafka's mind operated.