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Sydney Bell

ENGL 2600

July 10, 2020

Critical Literary Analysis Essay

Deconstructing Desperate Desire for Attention in “A Hunger Artist”

From time to time, between our hashtags and emojis, we might pause and wonder how

much attention our online presences really get. Are the things we post real and how much do

they matter? The short story “A Hunger Artist” by Franz Kafka illustrates just how disappointing

our desperate ploys for attention can be. Kafka unfolds the story of a nameless man who

performs the art of “professional fasting”. He spends his days sitting emaciated in a cage without

food for passersby to see. As time goes on, the thrill of his feat goes unnoticed and seemingly

unappreciated. Kafka was not just telling a story about a poor man with a strange profession.

Through the lens of deconstruction theory, readers will see that the author was actually

demonstrating the dangers of seeking others’ attention to validate reality by the use of irony and

contradiction in the elements of setting, characters, and theme.

The scene of this story is set by describing the hunger artist’s cage in the open air, with

“not even a seat but down among straw on the ground” (Kafka 322) for everyone to see. He sat

all day and all night as his audience came and went. When the excitement of the hunger artist

died in the town, his cage was moved to the outskirts of a circus among the animals. The fact that

a human being is in a cage in the first place causes the reader to consider the metaphor of the

cage itself. It is ironic that this cage was not an imprisonment forced upon this unfortunate man

but that he willingly chose to be caged. It was not the cage holding him back, rather it was
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himself. With his desperate search for validation from others, the hunger artist only limited

himself. When he moved to the circus, it is little wonder that his prospects for success did not

change or increase because he was still in his “cage”. Regardless of his physical location, he

would forever be caged unless he awoke to a new sense of self-assurance.

The characters of this story also add to the overall irony. We are faced with an artist who

perhaps thinks too highly of his profession and, in contrast, an audience who thinks too little of

it. The hunger artist believed he was doing something noble and great. However, the audience

was oblivious to the supposed deeper essence of his art. Some saw him perhaps as brave, maybe

somewhat accomplished, but generally just crazy. They seemed to be fascinated with his art for a

while, but then suddenly became disgusted by it.

An interpretation of these characters is offered by Yahia Lababidi in the article, “The Art

of Fasting: A Question of Attention”. Regarding the audience’s attitude toward the hunger artist,

Lababidi says, “Perhaps people are loath to be reminded of their own neglected human

possibilities” (Lababidi 54). It might be that the people experienced only short-lived excitement

because the longer they watched, the more they were reminded of the things they were not doing

and the heights they were not reaching. In normal circumstances, it may be argued that we are

generally encouraged and motivated when we see incredible odds beat. We walk away ready to

do and be more than we were before. In this story, however, the artist constantly felt held back

by the fasting maximum of forty days set by the impresario and watchers who were not

consistent. At the very same time, the audience felt weighed down by watching the artist’s

performance, too. This inconsistency shows just how futile the artist’s attempt for attention was.

His fasting was not pleasing himself nor anyone else.

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Upon the artist were set “permanent watchers” to keep an eye on him and his honor.

When the watchers became laid-back in their vigil, the artist got frustrated with ideas that the

guards assumed he would sneak a small snack while they weren’t looking. For the artist, it

seemed that his endeavor was only of value if he was watched- watched correctly. Kevin

Melchionne’s piece, “Why Artists Starve”, explains that, “Their desire to scrupulously ratify the

authenticity of his effort is also an endorsement of its value” (Melchionne 555). The artist’s

performance was only as valuable as the time people spent watching him. There is a clear

contradiction in the artist’s longing to be seen when the story adds, “No one could possibly

watch the hunger artist continuously, day and night, and so no one could produce first-hand

evidence that the fast had really been rigorous and continuous; only the artist himself could know

that, he was therefore bound to be the sole completely satisfied spectator of his own fast” (Kafka

323-324). The ironic dynamics between the characters show that the artist was constantly trying

to gain attention from an audience that was incapable of truly seeing the full measure of his feat.

The hunger artist so badly wanted attention, yet no amount of the audience’s attention would

have been sufficient to satisfy him.

The greatest example of irony is found at the very end of the story when the hunger artist

explained why fasting was so easy for him. “’Because I have to fast, I can't help it,’ said the

hunger artist. ‘What a fellow you are,’ said the overseer, ‘and why can't you help it?’ ‘Because,’

said the hunger artist, lifting his head a little and speaking, with his lips pursed, as if for a kiss,

right into the overseer's ear, so that no syllable might be lost, ‘because I couldn't find the food I

liked. If I had found it, believe me, I should have made no fuss and stuffed myself like you or

anyone else’” (Kafka 328). This detail about the artist’s dislike for food causes readers to

question the legitimacy of this artist’s practice as a whole. We have to wonder how great the
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hunger artist’s talent actually was if he didn’t like food anyways. Melchionne continues in his

piece, “There is in fact no suffering in the hunger artist’s fast because the hunger artist desires no

food. Though the physical wages of fasting may be real, his suffering is faked. What the hunger

artist creates is nothing more than a spectacle of self-destruction designed to attract the attention

of others” (Melchionne 559). It seems that in reality, the artist was trying to prove something

when there wasn’t anything to prove at all. A hunger artist who starves for no other reason than

the dislike of food will always truly be hungry indeed.

This short story was set in an era of the past, but it has applicable lessons for readers

today. Although we, as readers, may be quick to ridicule the hunger artist for being so foolish, it

is wise to take a step back and take a look in the mirror first. Our lives very well might be just as

ironic as this poor artist’s was. There were not smartphones and Twitter feeds in the period when

professional fasting thrived, but it seems that social media achieves the same vain end today.

When posting our selfies and updating our statuses, we must ask ourselves if our audience is

actually capable of fully understanding or appreciating the real life we live. The answer, of

course, is no. We can reflect upon the cages that we keep ourselves in- perhaps they look like

four-inch glass screens now- and consider why we choose to stay in them or how we can choose

to leave them. And most of all, we ought to ask ourselves what acts we are putting on in hopes of

gaining attention. Just as the hunger artist learned in this ironic tale, there is no amount of

attention that will validate reality for us. We alone are the completely satisfied spectator of our

own lives.
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Works Cited

Kafka, Franz. "A Hunger Artist." Literature and Its Writers: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry,
and Drama, translated and edited by Ann Charters, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013, 322-328.

Lababidi, Yahia. “The Art of Fasting: A Question of Attention.” Tikkun (Duke University Press),
vol. 23, no. 6, Nov. 2008, pp. 53–55. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1215/08879982-2008-6018.

Melchionne, Kevin. “Why Artists Starve.” Philosophy & Literature, vol. 31, no. 1, Apr. 2007,
pp. 142–148. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1353/phl.2007.0012.