Franz Kafka - Existentialist or Romantic

[Phillip]

Walter H. Sokel's last word (regarding K. & The Castle):
"Unmoored from his spiritual and social anchorage, expelled from his once secure place in the cosmos, modern man, as the Existentialists point out, has to make his own identity and project his own existence instead of assuming it as given. Kafka's fragmentary novel depicts the tragic irony and ultimate impossibility of this enterprise' (p. 44-Franz Kafka, Columbia Essays on Modern Writers, 1966).

Franz Kafka. Tragik und Ironie. Zur Struktur seiner Kunst

Kafka Unleashed: Stories, Dreams & Visions

Josef K.'s interaction with the 'priest' {spiritualist} in the cathedral and the parable: Before the Law - this is the centerpiece of The Trial {Process} - and the Irony and Tragedy of modern man's inability to get off the "stool" and enter into the domain of the Law.

thus, existentialism and romanticism are united, only Kafka can reach such a height (in my erstwhile opinion):
"... this is almost a metaphor for the impoverished nature of our folk's existence in the midst of the tumult of a hostile world, a world that quite simply is overbrimming with enemies. Josephine makes her stand, this abysmal execution asserts itself and creates a PATH to us..." - transl. from Kafka's last story: Josephine the Songstress (p. 286) or The Mouse Folk >> squeak squeak.

p.