A Hunger Artist

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the 1922 Franz Kafka short story. For the 1987 Richard Greenberg play, see The Hunger Artist (play).

A Hunger Artist (Ein Hungerkünstler), also translated as A Fasting Artist, is a short story by Franz Kafka published in Die Neue Rundschau in 1922. The protagonist is an archetypical creation of Kafka, an individual marginalised and victimised by society at large.

1 Plot summary <ref>Kafka (1996, 159–172).</ref>
2 Analysis
3 Notes
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Plot summary <ref>Kafka (1996, 159–172).</ref>

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story details the life of a professional hunger artist. The hunger artist at first wishes to claim fame by his feats of fasting, despising the limitations imposed upon his performance by the need to retain interest as well as the views people seem to have of him, where they believe him to be a cheat. Forty days is the maximum length he is allowed to fast by his impresario, and at the end of the fast a little ceremony for the public takes place, after which only the hunger artist is still utterly dissatisfied. When interest begins to fade, he takes up a position with a circus where he is able to carry on his fast indefinitely. Only, after time, he finds the crowds there lose interest just as much as the circus staff who neglect to update the signs around his cage demonstrating the length of his feat of fasting. When, finally, the owner of the circus comes to reclaim the cage, thinking it empty, they find the hunger artist amongst the hay. At this point he reveals that he had to fast as there was no food that he liked. After he states this, he apparently dies and is buried along with the hay. The cage is then filled by a young panther who draws extensive crowds and takes joy in consuming the meats that are provided.

[edit] Analysis

This section does not cite its references or sources.
You can help Wikipedia by introducing appropriate citations.This article has been tagged since November 2006.

On many levels the story deals with the ideas of willing nothingness and asceticism as put forward in Nietzsche's texts Beyond Good and Evil and On the Genealogy of Morals. The opening line, "During these last decades the interest in professional fasting has markedly diminished" may be literally read that the world no longer cares about asceticism.