Kafkaesque

Characteristic of the nightmarish, oppressive quality of Franz Kafka's fictional world; marked by surreal, illogical bureaucracy.

• (no common derivatives)

• Kafkaesque bureaucracy
• Kafkaesque nightmare
• Kafkaesque experience
• Kafkaesque situation

1. 1.Trying to get a visa involved a Kafkaesque process — each office sent me to another, endlessly. (absurdly bureaucratic)
2. 2.The trial felt Kafkaesque: charges were vague, evidence was secret, and the verdict seemed predetermined. (nightmarishly illogical)

• surreal/sʌˈrɪəl/— bizarre, dreamlike
• nightmarish/ˈnaɪtmeərɪʃ/— extremely distressing
• absurd/əbˈsɜːd/— wildly unreasonable

from Franz Kafka (1883–1924), Czech writer whose novels "The Trial" and "The Metamorphosis" depicted individuals trapped in incomprehensible, oppressive systems