The term "Kafkaesque" is used to describe literature or concepts which bear a resemblance to the work of late 19th and early 20th century writer, Franz Kafka. Kafka's work was characterized by presenting disorienting and surreal situations. The Dictionary website defines the term as, "of, relating to, or suggestive of Franz Kafka or his writings; especially : having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality."
The popular science fiction television series The Twilight Zone is a great example of media which can be described as "Kafkaesque." Characters often find themselves in very strange situations, with an overwhelming sense of doom and unease. At the same time, the narrative construction of the worlds in which these situations occur presents them as being a real, natural, or possible course of events.
While Kafka in no way "invented" such surrealist literature, he certainly made popular a distinctively unsettling way of storytelling.
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