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CAT 2016 Verbal and Reading Comprehension

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Question : 27

Total: 34

The following question consists of a paragraph which is followed by four options. Among the given options, choose the one which captures the essence of the paragraph accurately and clearly Type in that option as the answer in the space provided below the question.

The century since Franz Kafka was born has been marked by the idea of "modernism"—self-consciousness new among centuries, a consciousness of being new. Sixty years after his death, Kafka epitomizes one aspect of this modern mind-set: a sensation of anxiety and shame whose center cannot be located and therefore cannot be placated; a sense of an infinite difficulty within things, impeding every step; a sensitivity acute beyond usefulness, as if the nervous system, flayed of its old hide of social usage and religious belief, must record every touch as pain. In Kafka’s peculiar and highly original case this dreadful quality is mixed with immense tenderness, oddly good humor, and a certain severe and reassuring formality. The combination makes him an artist; but rarely can an artist have struggled against greater inner resistance and more sincere diffidence as to the worth of his art.

Despite Kafka’s shyness and struggles he is a quintessential modernist artist, as he, quite unlike any other, manages to juxtapose tenderness and humor with pain and an implacable sense of anxiety and shame.
Kafka's ability to lace his literature with themes of modernism such as anxiety, shame and pain intermingled with humor and tenderness makes him an original modernist.
Kafka was ahead of his time as he exemplifies the modernist mindset of anxiety and pain, but he is raised to the level of an artist only when he manages to mix this with humor and tenderness.
Kafka’s shyness and inner struggles are an outcome of the modernism he displays wherein the thoughts are permeated with anxiety and pain, but as he is an artist he uses humor and formality as a reassurance.

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