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A Hunger Artist

"A Hunger Artist" (German: Ein Hungerkünstler) is a short story by the Czech-German writer Franz Kafka, first published in the Berlin literary magazine Die neue Rundschau in 1922.^[1] The narrative follows a professional fasting performer, known only as the hunger artist, who endures prolonged periods of starvation in a public cage as a form of entertainment, highlighting his profound isolation and the public's misunderstanding of his dedication.^[2] Despite initial popularity, the artist's act declines in appeal, leading him to join a circus where he fasts indefinitely until his death, only to be replaced by a vibrant panther that effortlessly captivates audiences.^[3] The story is structured in two main parts: the first depicts the height of the hunger artist's career under the management of an impresario who limits his fasts to 40 days for commercial viability, during which crowds visit but often suspect him of secretly eating, monitored by skeptical overseers like butchers.^[2] The artist resents these constraints and the disbelief, as fasting comes naturally to him, yet he is forced into humiliating post-fast feasts to prove his authenticity.^[3] In the second part, as public interest in hunger artists fades entirely, the protagonist secures a diminished role in a circus sideshow, confined to a cage among animal exhibits where he is largely ignored, allowing him to fast without interruption until he weakens and dies.^[2] On his deathbed, he confesses to a circus overseer that his fasting was not a chosen art but a compulsion driven by his inability to find any food that pleased him, underscoring the tragic irony of his misunderstood existence.^[3] Kafka's tale serves as a parable exploring themes of artistic alienation, the conflict between personal integrity and societal expectations, and the ephemeral nature of fame.^[3] The hunger artist's unappreciated devotion contrasts sharply with the panther's instinctive vitality, symbolizing the disconnect between the ascetic artist's inner truth and the world's preference for accessible spectacles.^[2] Written near the end of Kafka's life—he corrected proofs for the 1924 posthumous collection A Hunger Artist while battling tuberculosis—the story reflects his own struggles with recognition and the burdens of creation.^[4]

Background and Context

Publication History

"A Hunger Artist" ("Ein Hungerkünstler") was composed by Franz Kafka in 1922, during the final years of his life. The short story first appeared in print in the October 1922 issue of the prestigious German literary periodical Die neue Rundschau, marking one of Kafka's last publications in a magazine format during his lifetime.^[5] The tale served as the titular work in Kafka's concluding collection of short stories, Ein Hungerkünstler: Vier Geschichten, which comprises four pieces including "First Sorrow," "A Little Woman," and "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk." This volume was issued by Die Schmiede Verlag in Berlin in 1924, the last book published during Kafka's lifetime.^[6] The edition, printed in a limited run with patterned boards, preserved Kafka's intended text without the editorial interventions that characterized many of his posthumous works edited by his friend Max Brod. Posthumously, "A Hunger Artist" has been featured in numerous collected editions of Kafka's oeuvre, including early Schocken Verlag publications in the 1930s that compiled his stories for German-speaking audiences amid rising political pressures in Europe. The first English translation of the story emerged in 1938, with a prominent version by Willa and Edwin Muir appearing in 1948 as part of the collection The Penal Colony: Stories and Short Pieces, published by Schocken Books.^[7] Subsequent translations, such as those by Joyce Crick in the 2012 Oxford World's Classics edition A Hunger Artist and Other Stories, have aimed to refine the nuances of Kafka's original German while maintaining fidelity to his sparse, ironic style.^[8]^[9] No significant textual variants have arisen from Brod's editions for this story, as it was finalized under Kafka's direct supervision.^[10]

Relation to Kafka's Life and Works

Franz Kafka's short story "A Hunger Artist," written in 1922 during the final years of his life, draws heavily from his personal struggles with tuberculosis, a disease diagnosed in 1917 that progressively worsened and ultimately caused his death in 1924.^[11] The protagonist's profession of fasting mirrors Kafka's own dietary restrictions and inability to eat, as the tuberculosis spread to his larynx, making swallowing nearly impossible and leading to effective starvation in his last months.^[12] This biographical element underscores the story's exploration of physical and existential deprivation, with Kafka composing the work while confined to sanatoriums and grappling with his deteriorating health.^[13] The narrative also reflects Kafka's deepening engagement with his Jewish heritage, particularly traditions of fasting associated with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which involves ritual abstinence as a form of spiritual purification and self-denial.^[14] Raised in a secular Jewish family in Prague's ghetto, Kafka later immersed himself in Yiddish theater and Hebrew studies, fostering an interest in Jewish mysticism and ambivalence toward his identity as a writer, whom he viewed as an isolated figure seeking validation in a indifferent world.^[15] The hunger artist's futile pursuit of artistic purity through fasting can be seen as a distorted allegory for these religious practices, blending Kafka's personal self-doubt with broader themes of spiritual alienation rooted in his cultural background.^[11] "A Hunger Artist" belongs to Kafka's late period, alongside unfinished novels like The Castle (1922) and stories such as "Investigations of a Dog" (1922), where motifs of alienation and unfulfilled longing dominate his posthumously published oeuvre.^[4] These works, often left incomplete, capture Kafka's intensifying sense of isolation from society and his profession, with the hunger artist's cage symbolizing the artist's entrapment in an uncomprehending modern world.^[15]

Narrative Elements

Plot Summary

The story follows the career of a professional hunger artist who performs extended fasts as an attraction in circuses, captivating audiences during the peak of his fame. Housed in a small, barred cage at the center of the ring, he endures public scrutiny while fasting for up to forty days at a time, a limit set by his impresario to maintain spectator interest and prevent overexposure. Crowds flock to observe him, drawn by posters announcing the duration of his fasts, and at midnight on the final day, he is released amid fanfare, weighed to verify his weight loss, and offered a ceremonial feast, though he eats little. To prevent any suspicion of cheating, rotating shifts of watchers—typically local butchers selected for their trustworthiness and familiarity with livestock—monitor him continuously, peering through the bars day and night; the artist, frustrated by their doubt, sometimes demonstrates his abstinence by rattling the bars of the cage or conversing amiably to prove his resolve.^[16] As decades pass, public fascination with hunger artists wanes, leading to smaller, less prestigious venues where audiences grow skeptical and inattentive, often accusing him of secret eating despite the watchers' vigilance. The impresario, ever the showman, adjusts by shortening fasts and adding distractions like illuminated posters and a constant flow of visitors, but the artist chafes under these constraints, yearning to fast indefinitely to showcase his true capabilities, which he finds effortless and natural. Deeply dissatisfied by the crowds' misunderstanding of his dedication—not as an art form but as potential deception—he eventually joins a sprawling circus, where his cage is relegated to a dim corner among the animal enclosures, overshadowed by the beasts that draw all attention. There, he commences what becomes his final, unlimited fast, but the overworked staff neglects to track the days or promote him, leaving him isolated and forgotten as visitors pass by without notice.^[16] After many months, the hunger artist, emaciated and near death, is discovered buried in the cage's straw by the circus overseer during a routine check. In his final breaths, he confesses to the overseer that his fasting stemmed not from a desire for fame or artistic fulfillment, but from an inability to find any food that satisfied him; had he discovered something palatable, he insists, he would have eaten contentedly like anyone else. He dies moments later, his body hastily removed and buried with the soiled straw to avoid disease. The empty cage is promptly filled with a lively young panther, whose raw energy, graceful movements, and insatiable appetite enthrall the crowds, replacing the artist's somber vigil with vibrant spectacle.^[16]

Characters

The hunger artist serves as the protagonist and central figure in the narrative, depicted as a dedicated professional faster who performs prolonged fasts in a public cage. He is characterized by his pallid complexion, emaciated physique, and reserved demeanor, often dressed in black tights while seated on a bed of straw. His primary function is to exhibit his fasting endurance as an art form, driven by an inner compulsion that compels him to continue beyond public expectations, revealing on his deathbed that he fasts not for acclaim but because no food satisfies him. He interacts courteously yet frustratingly with watchers through gestures like nods and smiles, attempting to affirm his authenticity, and engages the audience by displaying his wasting body through the bars, though he remains largely isolated in his pursuit.^[16]^[17] The impresario functions as the hunger artist's practical manager, organizing the performances and commercializing the act to attract crowds. Portrayed as authoritative and promotional, he contrasts the artist's ascetic dedication with his own focus on spectacle and profitability, providing logistical support such as scales for weighing the artist and torches for nighttime surveillance. His interactions with the hunger artist include physically carrying him after fasts conclude, scolding him for emotional outbursts toward doubters, and enforcing the 40-day limit to maintain public interest, though he eventually abandons the artist when the act loses appeal.^[16]^[17] The watchers and audience represent collective societal elements, with the watchers consisting of rotating shifts of men—often butchers—tasked with verifying the artist's abstinence from food during the fast. They are depicted as a mix of the skeptical and the dutiful, some rigorously inspecting the cage while others grow lax in their vigilance. The broader audience includes casual visitors, families with season tickets, and children, who engage superficially by observing, questioning the authenticity, and participating in the ceremonial end-of-fast feast, where they weigh and celebrate the artist before interest inevitably wanes. Their interactions highlight doubt and fleeting fascination, as they prod the artist with sticks or marvel at his thinness but ultimately prioritize entertainment over understanding his compulsion.^[16]^[17] The panther appears in the story's final scene as the successor occupant of the hunger artist's cage in a circus setting, embodying a stark contrast through its vibrant, effortless vitality. Described as sleek and powerful, with a graceful presence that fills the space with life, its function is to draw immediate and sustained public attention without the need for verification or explanation. It has no direct interactions with other characters but captivates the audience and visitors, who flock to it in awe, replacing the forgotten artist's isolation with communal admiration.^[16]^[17]

Themes and Symbolism

The Nature of Art

In Franz Kafka's "A Hunger Artist," the protagonist's fasting serves as a profound metaphor for the purity of artistic creation, embodying a form of self-denial that prioritizes intrinsic fulfillment over external rewards. This act of prolonged abstinence represents an uncompromised devotion to art, where the artist's inner compulsion drives the performance, free from the distractions of bodily sustenance or societal approval. As scholar Stanley Corngold observes, fasting symbolizes the renunciation of material life in favor of an ascetic pursuit of truth, akin to the artist's isolation in striving for authenticity.^[18] The hunger artist's sole satisfaction derives from his own observation of the fast, underscoring art's essence as a personal, almost spiritual endeavor rather than a bid for acclaim.^[19] The story critiques the commodification of art in modern society, where genuine expression is overshadowed by its transformation into a mere spectacle for public consumption. The artist's enclosure in a cage and the crowds' fleeting interest highlight how artistic integrity is eroded when creativity becomes a marketable entertainment, subject to the whims of audiences and impresarios who impose limits on the fast for logistical reasons. Corngold notes this tension as a distortion of art's purity through societal exploitation, reducing the profound to the superficial and emphasizing property relations over existential depth.^[18] In this portrayal, the spectacle's demand for verification—through watchers and scales—undermines the artist's autonomous vision, illustrating how capitalism alienates creators from their work's true value.^[19] Kafka's own writing process mirrors this "fasting" motif, reflecting his lifelong struggle as an artist whose labors remained largely unappreciated during his lifetime. He viewed literature as an all-consuming necessity that isolated him from conventional life, much like the hunger artist's compulsion to fast despite incomprehension from others. In letters and diaries, Kafka expressed writing as a form of self-denial and torment, a pursuit that demanded total dedication yet yielded little recognition before his death in 1924, with "A Hunger Artist" among his final, posthumously published works.^[18] This autobiographical undercurrent positions the story as Kafka's meditation on the artist's solitary endurance. Central to the narrative is the conflict between artistic integrity and public demand, culminating in the hunger artist's death as a poignant emblem of misunderstood genius and its ultimate futility. The artist's insistence on fasting beyond imposed limits reveals a refusal to compromise his vision, even as indifference leads to his replacement by more palatable attractions like a panther. Corngold interprets this as the artist's role as a scapegoat, whose pure expression breaks through societal masks only to be discarded, highlighting the tragic disconnect between creator and audience.^[18] The protagonist's final revelation—that he fasted out of inability to find satisfying "food"—affirms art's inherent dissatisfaction, where integrity persists amid neglect, tying his isolation directly to this unyielding artistic pursuit.^[19]

Isolation and Society

In Franz Kafka's "A Hunger Artist," the protagonist's voluntary confinement in a cage symbolizes existential solitude, representing a deliberate withdrawal from the world that intensifies his isolation amid growing societal indifference. The artist chooses this enclosure as the medium for his fasting performance, yet as public fascination diminishes, he remains alone for extended periods, culminating in his unnoticed death. This self-imposed isolation underscores the artist's inability to connect with others, as the cage becomes both a stage and a barrier, trapping him in a liminal space between visibility and oblivion.^[20]^[17] The story critiques bourgeois society's prioritization of superficial entertainment over genuine artistic depth, rendering the hunger artist obsolete in a culture that values spectacle without comprehension. Spectators initially flock to the cage for amusement, but their misunderstanding of fasting as mere trickery erodes support, shifting attention to more accessible attractions like animal exhibits. This preference for immediate gratification exposes the artist's alienation, as his profound act of denial fails to resonate, leading to his professional decline and erasure from public consciousness.^[20]^[17] Fasting in the narrative carries religious undertones of ascetic withdrawal, evoking a spiritual quest for transcendence through self-denial that parallels Kafka's exploration of existential guilt and bureaucratic entrapment in works like The Trial. The artist's prolonged abstinence mirrors saintly or prophetic suffering, such as biblical figures enduring trials for higher purpose, yet it ultimately reveals a futile pursuit amid modern disconnection from sacred ideals. This motif highlights the tension between personal devotion and societal incomprehension, where the artist's "art" becomes an involuntary necessity rather than a chosen sacrament.^[21]^[20] The replacement of the hunger artist with a panther in the cage starkly contrasts themes of belonging and exclusion, as the animal's vibrant integration into the social gaze affirms what the human performer lacks. While the artist is discarded like refuse upon his death, the panther draws crowds with its raw vitality and ease of acceptance, symbolizing society's embrace of instinctual, unproblematic existence over the complexities of individual alienation. This substitution emphasizes the artist's ultimate rejection, reinforcing the narrative's portrayal of profound disconnection from communal norms.^[20]^[17]

Literary Style

Narrative Technique

Franz Kafka employs a third-person limited narration in "A Hunger Artist," allowing the narrator to access the protagonist's inner thoughts while also providing external observations of the crowd and societal dynamics.^[22] This perspective enables seamless shifts between the hunger artist's private frustrations—such as his desire to fast longer than the prescribed limits—and the public's superficial fascination, fostering an ironic distance that underscores the disconnect between the artist's intentions and societal reception. The narrative voice maintains a detached tone, commenting on historical changes in public interest without aligning fully with any single viewpoint, which heightens the story's aura of absurdity.^[23] The narrative incorporates non-linear elements through retrospective framing and reflections on the artist's past fame, creating a sense of inevitable decline from his earlier triumphs to obscurity. Beginning with a broad overview of the fading popularity of fasting exhibitions, the story flashes back to the height of the hunger artist's career, where crowds marveled at his endurance, only to contrast this with his later marginalization; this structure builds tension by implying the protagonist's trajectory toward irrelevance from the outset. Such temporal layering emphasizes the transient nature of artistic validation without disrupting the overall forward momentum of the plot. Dialogue is used sparingly throughout the story, amplifying the hunger artist's voicelessness and reliance on descriptive prose to convey his isolation. Interactions are limited to brief exchanges, such as the impresario's assurances or the artist's final whispered confession, which serve more as punctuations than drivers of action, allowing the dominant narrative descriptions to immerse readers in the visual and psychological spectacle of fasting. This minimalist approach reinforces the protagonist's entrapment in silence, mirroring his physical and existential constraints. Foreshadowing permeates the narrative via recurring motifs of time and observation, subtly anticipating the artist's death and obsolescence. References to the forty-day fasting limit, enforced by watchful overseers, hint at the boundaries the artist will transgress in his final, unobserved fast, while the circus manager's indifference signals his replacement by the panther. These elements, woven into the descriptions of routines and rituals, evoke a inexorable progression toward demise, enhancing the story's tragic irony.

Language and Tone

Kafka's prose in "A Hunger Artist" is characterized by its precision and detachment, employing simple, straightforward sentences that underscore the mundane horror of the protagonist's fasting while evoking a sense of absurdity and pathos. This style creates a clinical distance that mirrors the artist's alienation, allowing readers to confront the tragedy without overt emotional manipulation.^[3]^[9] Vivid imagery permeates the narrative, particularly in depictions of the hunger artist's physical enclosure and bodily deterioration, such as the "straw-covered cage" that confines him and his emaciated form, which symbolizes both literal starvation and a deeper metaphysical decay. These descriptions blend the corporeal with the existential, heightening the story's atmosphere of inevitable decline and unfulfilled aspiration.^[3] The overall tone is ironic, interweaving elements of pity for the artist's plight with a subtle critique of societal incomprehension, amplified by the narrator's neutral, almost observational stance that heightens the tragedy of mutual misunderstanding. This irony emerges through the dispassionate recounting of the artist's devotion, which contrasts sharply with the public's superficial fascination, reinforcing the theme of isolation.^[3]^[9] In the original German, Kafka's language exhibits a rhythmic quality, especially in the repetitive passages detailing the artist's daily routines and the passage of time, which imparts a hypnotic cadence to the prose; however, English translations often adapt this rhythm to preserve readability, sometimes at the expense of the original's subtle musicality.^[9]

Reception and Legacy

Critical Reception

Upon its initial publication in 1922 in the Berlin literary magazine Die neue Rundschau, "A Hunger Artist" received mixed reviews in the German press, with critics praising the story's originality and psychological depth while often noting its obscurity and enigmatic quality. For instance, reviewers in journals like Die neue Rundschau highlighted Kafka's innovative portrayal of the artist's isolation but struggled to pinpoint its allegorical intent, viewing it as a perplexing extension of his earlier, more accessible works like The Metamorphosis.^[24] This ambivalence reflected Kafka's emerging status in the 1920s literary scene, where his prose was admired for its precision yet criticized for evading straightforward interpretation.^[24] The story's posthumous rise gained momentum in the 1930s through the advocacy of Max Brod, Kafka's close friend and literary executor, who defied Kafka's wishes by publishing and promoting his unpublished manuscripts. Brod's prefaces and essays, such as those in the 1930s editions of Kafka's collected works, framed "A Hunger Artist" as a profound meditation on the artist's plight, elevating Kafka from a niche figure to a central voice in modernist literature and influencing subsequent German-Jewish intellectual circles.^[25] This advocacy was instrumental in broadening Kafka's audience beyond Prague, as Brod's efforts countered the initial obscurity by emphasizing the story's universal resonance with themes of alienation.^[24] Post-World War II, existentialist interpreters like Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre linked "A Hunger Artist" to the absurdity of human existence, reading the protagonist's fasting as a futile rebellion against an indifferent world. Camus, in his philosophical framework, saw parallels between the artist's self-imposed suffering and the Sisyphean struggle, interpreting the story as an emblem of existential revolt without resolution. Sartre similarly analyzed it through the lens of bad faith, where the hunger artist's authenticity crumbles under societal gaze, underscoring themes of freedom and isolation.^[26] In the 1960s and 1970s, structuralist approaches, notably by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature (1975), examined power dynamics in the story, portraying the hunger artist's cage as a site of bureaucratic control and desire's suppression, reinterpreting his marginality as resistance to majoritarian structures. Key scholars have further shaped interpretations of the story's motifs. Walter Benjamin, in his 1934 essay "Franz Kafka: On the Tenth Anniversary of His Death," described Kafka's universe—including elements in "A Hunger Artist"—as one of "nothingness," where gestures of striving lead to inevitable void, emphasizing the artist's futile pursuit amid a gesture-filled but meaningless world.^[27] Harold Bloom, in discussions of Kafka's influence, highlighted recurring motifs of artistic failure, viewing the hunger artist's demise as a canonical example of the writer's anxiety and self-sabotage in the face of unappreciative audiences.^[28] Modern critiques since 2000 have expanded this discourse, with postcolonial readings framing the artist's marginality as akin to colonial othering and exploitation, as in analyses comparing it to subaltern performances of endurance. Queer interpretations explore latent homoerotic undertones in the artist's bodily exposure and societal rejection, suggesting a coded narrative of non-normative desire.^[29] Feminist perspectives, meanwhile, critique the story's depiction of bodily discipline, linking the hunger artist's asceticism to gendered control over the body, drawing parallels to historical fasting practices often imposed on women.^[30] These diverse lenses underscore the story's enduring adaptability to contemporary theoretical frameworks. As of 2025, studies continue to explore global receptions, such as a analysis of Kafka's influence in South Korean literature and media from 1955 to 2023, highlighting adaptations and thematic integrations.^[31]

Adaptations and Influence

"A Hunger Artist" has inspired numerous stage adaptations, particularly in experimental theater, where its themes of performance and isolation lend themselves to innovative interpretations. Sinking Ship Productions premiered a visually striking version in 2016, employing physical theater, puppetry, Victorian miniatures, and simple props to evoke the story's darkly comic tone, which later toured internationally, including to the Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes in France.^[32]^[33] In 2017, a production at The Tank in New York used an illuminated toy theater and a single actor to highlight the story's shifting moods from humor to tragedy.^[34] More recent stagings include Josh Luxenberg's 2019 bouffon-style adaptation, emphasizing communal sympathy amid the artist's solitude, and Eimuntas Nekrošius' 2024 Lithuanian production, which reframes the narrative as a reflection on the existential battle between art and audience expectations.^[35]^[36] Additionally, in June 2024, choreographer Arthur Pita premiered a dance adaptation at the Oxford Kafka Festival, featuring Edward Watson and Meow Meow, intertwining dance, song, and theater to explore the story's themes of endurance and alienation.^[37] Film adaptations have captured the story's surreal allegory through short formats. John Strysik's 1982 black-and-white short film faithfully renders the hunger artist's public fasting and societal indifference, drawing on Kafka's original 1922 publication.^[38] Tom Gibbons' 2002 experimental piece sets the action in a liminal urban space, underscoring the performer's isolation with ambient sounds of distant life.^[39] A 2018 adaptation explores themes of spectacle, power, and resistance, portraying the artist as a figure of ambiguous narcissism.^[40] In graphic novel form, the story has been reinterpreted to blend Kafka's prose with visual surrealism. Nishioka Kyoudai's 2023 Kafka: A Graphic Novel Adaptation includes an illustrated version of "A Hunger Artist" alongside other tales, using stark imagery to amplify the artist's alienation and the crowd's voyeurism.^[41] Robert Crumb and David Z. Mairowitz's earlier graphic rendition contrasts the original text's narrative with exaggerated, grotesque drawings to emphasize themes of absurdity and self-denial.^[42] The story's influence extends to literature, where Kafka's exploration of artistic futility echoes in the works of Jorge Luis Borges, who translated "A Hunger Artist" into Spanish and drew on its motifs of incomprehensible systems and personal torment in stories like those in Ficciones.^[43] Broader Kafkaesque elements from the tale appear in postmodern fiction, influencing portrayals of isolated performers and societal alienation, though direct echoes in Orhan Pamuk's novels remain more tied to Kafka's overall oeuvre than this specific story.^[44] Cultural references in modern art often invoke the hunger artist as a symbol of performative endurance. Daria Martin's 2017-2018 exhibition A Hunger Artist at Maureen Paley in London adapts the narrative through film and sculpture, probing psychoanalytic tensions between body, mind, and spectatorship in contemporary performance art.^[45] The Jewish Museum Berlin's Access Kafka (2016) connects the story to installations examining artistic consciousness and public gaze.^[46] Post-2010 adaptations frequently address contemporary issues like social media fame and performative identity. A 2024 Columbia University staging reimagines the hunger artist's cage as a live-streaming setup, critiquing digital voyeurism and the commodification of personal suffering.^[47] Michael Landes' 2024 adaptation explicitly ties the artist's fasting to social media's demand for constant, authenticated visibility.^[48]

References

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The Starvation of the Soul: Eimuntas Nekrošius' 'A Hunger Artist' and ...
Sep 23, 2024 · In this performance, we see not only an adaptation of Kafka's text but a reflection of Nekrošius himself—an artist who, much like the hunger ...
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A Hunger Artist (1982) - IMDb
Rating 6.9/10 (16) A Hunger Artist: Directed by John Strysik. With Robert Rothman. Based on Kafka's 1922 short story about a hunger artist.Missing: Bindler | Show results with:Bindler
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The Hunger Artist (2002) - Tom Gibbons - Letterboxd
Set in a city both past and present, on a deserted street where only the distant sounds of life blow by. The Hunger Artist stands alone, locked in his cage.
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A Hunger Artist (Short 2018) - IMDb
A Hunger Artist adapts Kafka's 1924 short story, an ambiguous allegory about spectacle and spectators; power, narcissism, and resistance.
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Kafka: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Nishioka Kyoudai | Goodreads
Rating 3.8 (461) ... Kafka's surreal masterpieces. Features adapted versions of: The Metamorphosis A Hunger Artist In the Penal Colony A Country Doctor The Concerns of a ...
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Hunger Artist PPR | PDF | Franz Kafka | Narration - Scribd
The document provides a comparison of Franz Kafka's short story "A Hunger Artist" and Robert D. Crumb and David Z. Mairowitz's graphic novel adaptation.
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A Metamorphosis? Rewriting in Borges's Translations of Kafka
Feb 11, 2011 · Sorrentino also questions whether Borges is the translator of 'Un artista del hambre' ('Ein Hungerkünstler' or 'A Hunger Artist') and 'Un ...
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Literature In Translation | Literary Gitane - WordPress.com
I haven't read any of Pamuk's novels and I thought this would be a good introduction to his writing. ... I found echoes of both Kafka's A Hunger Artist and The ...
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Daria Martin: A Hunger Artist — Mousse Magazine and Publishing
Daria Martin's A Hunger Artist, presented at London's Maureen Paley, adapts Kafka's text to redouble on its psychoanalytic tendencies, reinstating the ...
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Access Kafka | Jewish Museum Berlin
Detail of a green book cover with a glued-on, red-framed label. Franz Kafka: Ein Hungerkünstler (A Hunger Artist), 1922.
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'A Hunger Artist' presents Kafka in the era of live streaming
Feb 18, 2024 · Franz Kafka's short story “A Hunger Artist” features a man who starves himself in a cage before a group of sometimes intrigued, ...Missing: modern | Show results with:modern
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A Hunger Artist - Mari Blake
Jan 27, 2024 · ... A Hunger Artist”, written by Michael Landes and directed by Yibin Wang. This piece is a modern adaptation of Franz Kafka's ... social media ...