In this graduation paper, we are going to analyse the insightful remark Theodor W. Adorno made on more than one occasion about how Franz Kafka in his novels and short stories commands interpretation through the collapse of the aesthetic distance. Against the anti-parabolist approach which is staunchly opposed to any interpretative efforts, we are going to argue for the inevitability of, and indeed the need for, the detailed readings of Kafka’s work, sketching meanwhile an ethics of interpretation which steers clear from a hermeneutical tyranny of searching for and claiming to find the “one true meaning” of a literary text. In dealing with aesthetic distance, and at least two distinct though interrelated meanings it has in Adorno’s usage, we are going to attempt to explain why Kafka’s destruction of aesthetic distance is a key to his literary powers and popularity both with the general audience and among the scholars. We will also show why despite many similarities Kafka’s oeuvre doesn’t belong to metaphysical detective fiction. A narratological analysis of Kafka’s method for abolishing the aesthetic distance will also be provided.