dream logic in The Trial

some narrative techniques Kafka employs in The Trial that conjure an atmosphere of dreamy surrealism:

• interjection of concrete details of unclear significance
• sudden clarification of previously hazy details
  • the three young men who are lurking around Frau Grubach’s apartment turn out to be functionaries at the same bank K. works at, and K. is puzzled as to how he didn’t recognize them at first.
• absurd behavior treated as perfectly normal
  • K. doesn’t want anyone to know he’s been summoned for an interrogation, so he instead knocks on every door in the building to ask if someone named Lanz is there, just for a chance to see into the room and determine if it’s where he’s supposed to be–because knocking on every door in the building isn’t going to make everyone think he’s a weirdo, somehow.
    • what makes this even weirder is that when K. does get to where the interrogation is, he asks the woman who opens the door if Lanz is there, and she’s like “right this way to your interrogation,” as though “Lanz” were a password she was waiting for.
    • also, K. is asked almost no questions during this “interrogation.” he provides a long defense of himself, and a repudiation of the court, that no one prompted.
  • to ensure that the court knows he won’t submit to being interrogated further, K. goes out of his way on a Sunday to return to the building, rather than just, you know, never going back again.
• inappropriate or comic reactions
• characters almost immediately contradicting themselves
• outbursts of violence