EXISTENTIALISM

IN THE HUNGER ARTIST BY

FRANZ KAFKA
 EXISTENTIALISM :
Existentialism is a movement in philosophy and literature
that emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice.
It began in the mid-to-late 19th Century, but reached its
peak in mid-20th Century France. It is based on the view
that humans define their own meaning in life, and try to
make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational
universe. It focuses on the question of human existence,
and the feeling that there is no purpose or explanation at
the core of existence. It holds that, as there is no God or
any other transcendent force, the only way to counter this
nothingness (and hence to find meaning in life) is
by embracing existence.
EXISTENTIALISM TAKES INTO CONSIDERATION THE UNDERLYING CONCEPTS:

 Human free will

 Human nature is chosen through life choices

 A person is best when struggling against their individual

nature, fighting for life
 Decisions are not without stress and consequences

 There are things that are not rational

 Personal responsibility and discipline is crucial

 Society is unnatural and its traditional religious and

secular rules are arbitrary
 Worldly desire is futile
 Existentialism does not support any of the
following:
 wealth, pleasure, or honor make the good life

 social values and structure control the individual

 accept what is and that is enough in life

 science can and will make everything better

 people are basically good but ruined by society

or external forces
EXISTENTIALISM VS. ESSENTIALISM
 Existentialism: Existence precedes essence.

 Essentialism: Essence precedes existence. 

Click here to watch the video

EXISTENTIALISM - IMPACT ON
SOCIETY

Existentialistic ideas came out of a time in society

when there was a deep sense of despair following the
Great Depression and World War II. There was a spirit
of optimism in society that was destroyed by World
War I and its mid-century calamities. This despair has
been articulated by existentialist philosophers well into
the 1970s and continues on to this day as a popular way
of thinking and reasoning (with the freedom to choose
one’s preferred moral belief system and lifestyle). 
 Existentialism is the search and journey for true self
and true personal meaning in life. 
Most importantly, it is the arbitrary act that
existentialism finds most objectionable-that is, when
someone or society tries to impose or demand that
their beliefs, values, or rules be faithfully accepted and
obeyed. Existentialists believe this destroys
individualism and makes a person become whatever
the people in power desire thus they are dehumanized
and reduced to being an object. Existentialism then
stresses that a person's judgment is the determining
factor for what is to be believed rather than by
arbitrary religious or secular world values.
 THE APPLICATION OF EXISTENTIALISM ON THE
HUNGER ARTIST BY FRANZ KAFKA

 Who is Franz Kafka?

 What is the Story about?

(The summary )
 The analysis of the story
 The application of the theory

1883- 1924
 WHO IS FRANZ KAFKA?
 Despite his great impact on the literary world, Franz
Kafka was a relatively "unknown" author during his life-
time. He published relatively few of his works, and those
were published in very limited runs, or in small literary
journals.Franz Kafka born in Prague, July 3, 1883, the son
of Hermann and Julie Kafka. He is known to have started
writing at an early age, but all of his earliest attempts were
later destroyed. His first published work came in 1907,
and he continued to publish throughout the next seventeen
years, but most of his works were published posthumously
by his friend Max Brod. Kafka's relationship to his father
dominates all discussions of both his life and his work.
SUMMARY OF THE HUNGER ARTIST

Watch the summary of the story

click here
THE ANALYSIS OF THE HUNGER ARTIST

 The Hunger Artist wanted approval from other people,

they came to see his performance; he was happy about it
yet, still miserable; but when they stopped coming he
bacame completely depressed.
 The Hunger Artist was a rebillion against his Humain
nature , he was uncomfortable with his Humanity of
needing food and drink to survive.
 As soon as society lost interest in The Hunger Artist,
because they knew the feeling of starving, they could do it
too « starving themselves»
 Kafka was a big critic of the capitalist system, for kafka ‘’it
was a system of mutual enslavement from top to bottom.
 THE APPLICATIONS OF THE THEORY
 The protagonist in the short story The Hunger Artist
accomplished the aspect of existence precedes essence.
Although in the beginning he was admired for his gift, he
was in the end chastised for his way of life. Crowds would
gather around his cage and peer in as he sat in solemn
silence in reverence of his own existence, but to them he
was purely a form of entertainment. What he considered to
be an accomplishment, such as fasting for forty days, all
too soon became boring to the onlooker. In the end, his
death almost came completely unnoticed because interest
in this form of art was quickly dulled and eventually
vacant because of the lack of understanding on the
audiences' part.
 The Hunger Artist is filled with examples of existentialistic
freedom. Ironically the artist chooses to keep himself locked
inside a cage. Freedom itself does not allow one to have
everything. Most would interpret this to mean that he is
confined and trapped; unwilling to be there. However he is in
there be choice. Not physically free, he finds being stationary
and in fasting routine to bring contemplative freedom. Even
in the end when his performance was no longer popular, he
continued to fast. This fasting freedom seemed as though it
could run on forever. Constantly searching for more, he was
never completely satisfied. While searching for more, he
could only ask himself 'why stop now' "since he felt that there
were no limits to his capacity for fasting" (Kafka 395).
 Kafka successfully uses existentialism to
portray how an individual comes to terms with
being and nothingness in order to become more
than what they were. He provokes one to ask
"Why do we exist?" and "Why is there rather
than there is not?" through existence proceeds
essence and freedom.
Thank you!