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Franz Kafka, "A Hunger Artist"

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A Contemporary Hunger Artist

Recently, David Blaine, a street magician, suspended himself in a glass box above a London Street. He spent forty-four days in the box eating no food and drinking only water. Read about his experience and the reaction of the public to the stunt. In what ways was he like Kafka's hero? In what ways was the contemporary audience's reaction similar to that of the one in Kafka's fiction?

Read this article on anorexia nervosa. What does the anorexic want to achieve? How is that different from and/or similar to what both the hunger artist and David Blaine tried to achieve?

Kafka's Life and Works

From the Literary Traveler, read about Kafka's working life, because few authors, including Kafka, become well known enough to support themselves with their writings and are compelled to hold ordinary jobs. Kafka loved the city of Prague and it influenced much of his work. Read Kafka's Prague: You Don't Have to Believe in Ghosts to be haunted by Architecture by Jackie Craven. It includes information about Prague and its representation in Kafka's work. Kafka was Jewish, and his religion strongly influenced his writing. Read this article on the influence of Judaism in his work. Seeing where Kafka lived and worked and what he believed may help you understand his worldview and how he could write such troubling fiction. In what ways do your city, work, and religion influence your worldview?

Rather late in his life, Kafka loved Milena Jesenska, a young woman he met while in a TB hospital. Learn about their love in this article and read some excerpts from their love letters. He died in 1924, before WWII, but she did not survive the war and died in a concentration camp. In what ways is the Kafka of the love letters different from the Kafka of "A Hunger Artist"?

In Brian Herzog's My Tribute to Franz Kafka you can read essays written by several people about his fiction; the ambiguity of his works has led to a variety of interpretations. Compare two differing interpretations of a work. Do you find one more convincing than the other? Can you offer yet another interpretation?

You can download "A Hunger Artist," "Metamorphosis," the story of a man transformed into a cockroach, or The Trial, a novel about a man brought to trail and executed for a crime that no one ever identifies.

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