A HUNGER ARTIST

FRANZ KAFKA
SHORT REVIEW:
• 'A Hunger Artist', published in 1922, is a short
story by Franz Kafka (1883-1924). The story is
about a hunger artist in a circus who sits in a cage
and fasts for weeks on end.

• Theme is the message or idea that the artist wishes

to convey through their art, or the message
received by an audience when observing art.
• Kafka’s story might be viewed as a narrative
embodiment of the well-worn truism, ‘the starving
artist’: the writer or artist who suffers and struggles
for their art, getting by on little material reward in
pursuit of the perfection of their art. The hunger
artist is prepared to starve himself to death in order
to ‘perfect’ the art he practises.
• As in many of Kafka's stories, “A Hunger Artist” also
explores themes of self-hatred, inadequacy, and
alienation.
 Franz Kafka was a German-speaking
Bohemian novelist who was born into
a middle-class, Jewish family and
short-story writer based in Prague,
widely regarded as one of the major
figures of 20th-century literature.

No literary attention until his death.

Died of tuberculosis at the age of 40.

Works published posthumously.

• Kafkaesque is used to describe
situations that are disorientingly and
illogically complex in a surreal or
nightmarish way. Kafkaesque comes
from the name of author Franz Kafka,
who lived from 1883 to 1924.
 Kafkaesque example?
Kafkaesque is if someone is evicted, loses their
job, loses a family or friend, and has their car
break all on the same day. The situation is
Kafkaesque because of the suffering and the
magnitude and culmination of horrifying events
all at the same time.
complicated, confusing,
and threatening!
BAD DAYS!
 What is Kafkaesque summary?
• What's Kafkaesque is when you enter a
surreal world in which all your control patterns,
all your plans, the whole way in which you
have configured your own behavior, begins to
fall to pieces, when you find yourself against a
force that does not lend itself to the way you
perceive the world.
• What did you learn from the story “The
Hunger Artist”?
• Do you believe in Kafkaesque? Why?
• How does Franz Kafka view the world?
• As a student, what can you say about
Kafka’s writing style?
• SHARE YOUR LEARNING HIGHLIGHTS!
“True art comes naturally to the artist, like
an inspired genius, and similarly it should
be allowed to exist, even if nobody of his
time appreciates it or takes an interest.”
- FRANZ KAFKA