...Through much of Franz Kafka’s writing, the reader can see how his personal experiences and viewpoints are clearly worked into his many stories. One of which stands out is his story A Hunger Artist. In this story Kafka speaks through the hunger artist of the alienation and isolation he feels in his own body, as well as the emptiness he feels as a result of the disconnected relationship he and his father share. Ironically this emptiness manifests itself quite literally at the end of Kafka’s life, when he dies as a result of tuberculosis of the larynx, which causes him to literally starve to death, just as the hunger artist in the story. It was said about his writing “the early manifestations of authentic originality were nurtured in solitary confinement, with his readiness to see the world through his own eyes.” (Pawel 160) This comes across clearly in A Hunger Artist as someone who is in a self-imposed solitary confinement seeking meaning to his life, much like the hunger artist being locked in his cage. Thus, Kafka uses A Hunger Artist to speak of himself and his experiences. A Hunger Artist is a short story about a once popular spectacle staged for the entertainment of a pleasure-seeking public: the exhibition of a professional “hunger-artist” performing in a cage of straw, his stunt of fasting. The hunger artist spends his fasting performances, and therefore most of his life, in a cage, on display before a crowd of people. His spectators see him as a trickster and common...
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...Through much of Franz Kafka’s writing, the reader can see how his personal experiences and viewpoints are clearly worked into his many stories. One of which stands out is his story A Hunger Artist. In this story Kafka speaks through the hunger artist of the alienation and isolation he feels in his own body, as well as the emptiness he feels as a result of the disconnected relationship he and his father share. Ironically this emptiness manifests itself quite literally at the end of Kafka’s life, when he dies as a result of tuberculosis of the larynx, which causes him to literally starve to death, just as the hunger artist in the story. It was said about his writing “the early manifestations of authentic originality were nurtured in solitary confinement, with his readiness to see the world through his own eyes.” (Pawel 160) This comes across clearly in A Hunger Artist as someone who is in a self-imposed solitary confinement seeking meaning to his life, much like the hunger artist being locked in his cage. Thus, Kafka uses A Hunger Artist to speak of himself and his experiences. A Hunger Artist is a short story about a once popular spectacle staged for the entertainment of a pleasure-seeking public: the exhibition of a professional “hunger-artist” performing in a cage of straw, his stunt of fasting. The hunger artist spends his fasting performances, and therefore most of his life, in a cage, on display before a crowd of people. His spectators see him as a trickster and common...
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...understanding and interpreting the different themes within Franz Kafka’s “A Hunger Artist”. In this story, the act of fasting is a symbol for spirituality. The “hunger” mentioned throughout the story can be interpreted as a thirst for spiritual enlightenment. The first instance in which fasting can be perceived as a symbol for spirituality lies within the very first line of the story. “During the last decade the interest in professional fasting has markedly diminished” (Kafka 507) just as the interest in professional spirituality i.e. structured religious beliefs has diminished within modern society. Therefore, the hunger artist, in his quest to achieve the ultimate fast, is symbolic of the monk, in his vocation to achieve the ultimate insight into the world beyond. In continuing this motif, there exist skeptics to the concept of spiritual enlightenment just as “suspicions…[are a] necessary accompaniment to the profession of fasting.” (509) Just as we hold only ourselves accountable for our own spiritual growth, “only the artist himself…[is] bound to be the sole completely satisfied spectator of his own fast.” (509) Also the fact that Kafka made “the longest period of fasting [as] fixed by the impresario at forty days” (509) furthers fasting as a symbol for spirituality since it alludes to Jesus, a central figure of Christian beliefs, literally fasting for forty days and nights. This allusion to the hunger artist as a Christ-like figure advances the symbolism of spirituality through...
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...Existentialist Artist In A Hunger Artist, Franz Kafka utilizes existential themes in a depiction of a man’s quest for personal fulfillment through starvation, deemed an art form. This man, the hunger artist, fasts for long periods of time as part of a circus act, but never experiences satisfaction as a result of his performance; he believes he can fast for much longer than is allowed. In his current situation, the impresario makes the decision for the extent of his fast, and as a result the artist is unhappy. The artist here loses the freedom of choice, a theme masterfully applied by Kafka here. Following the ideals of existentialism, one can only experience the happiness brought upon by his own choices. Accordingly, the hunger artist remains discontent when he is unable to test the extent of his fasting abilities. It is his art form being denied. For example, when the artist is first displayed at the larger circus, he holds conventional expectations that he will find satisfaction in a longer fast. Furthermore, due to the artist’s dejection as a result of his inability to define the terms of his fast, the hunger artist experiences the existentialist “unfulfillable desire for fulfillment.” These expectations contrast existentialism because in them the hunger artist tries to find meaning through the attention of spectators, rather than finding meaning through his own choices. Since he does not follow the existentialist guidelines for creating meaning, the artist remains incessantly...
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...man. The title is based on the cathedral but the story is about two men who have a problem seeing. In Franz Kafka’s story, "A Hunger Artist," a man, who the writer calls “Hunger Artist”, sets on a journey with his impresario from one town to the other and finds a public place to show his fasting skills. The man is locked up in a cage and he fasts for a period of forty days. During his fasting period, people are not attracted to his intensions but suspect that he is sneaking food. He is frustrated when the town people assign butchers to ensure that he feeds on nothing. The allow him to eat. Eventually, the manager sees that the man will die and feeds him forcefully. Later, the man dies. The cage was replaced with a panther that eats hungrily and attracts many people to it. The hunger artist is a symbol of how the world is. The artist represents the part of the world that needs attention from everyone. This joy-deprived man has set himself to live a life different from other people so that he can have a theme that will ignite the people’s behavior towards him. He stays hungry for many days. Having people set to watch over him as they do not trust him reveals ironic understanding as the artist wants to stay hungry but the people do not believe him. The manager insists that he should eat because without doing so, he would die. They feed him forcefully. This artist is faced with tragedy and cries of desperation as his...
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...Michael Poteet Poteet 1 Professor Lesser English 116 December 8, 2011 Comparisons and Dissimilarity of Love Octavio Paz, Franz Kafka, and Anton Chekhov, despite living in different eras and locations had similar sentience while going through many different experiences in life. This fact demonstrates the value of comparison but also the ability to contrast to understand life. Through “The Lady With the Dog”, “The Hunger Artist”, and “My Life With the Wave”, the reader is able to conclude: The stories while being decidedly different in diegesis’s also contain similarities in the symbolic contrivances used throughout all three stories Upon reading “The Lady with the Dog” by Chekhov the reader cannot help but sympathize with Anna and Dmitri. Sadly the timing of the relationship is unfortunate. The characters ultimately act in ignorance, because they do not find satisfaction in the relationships with their spouses so they choose to find it somewhere else. This is where are the pain the characters are feeling is coming from. Because sexual intimacy is so powerful and brings couples together into one “person” it causes so much pain for the couple because they have felt that feeling and cannot have it. They both meet their fate in love by finding their true match in one another, but very rarely do fate and timing coincide with one another, so they are forced to continually meet in secrecy through out the story. Poteet 2 Throughout...
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...? 37 r> This bookihould be returned on or before the date last marked below. WHAT IS LITERATURE? JEAN-PAUL SARTRE Translated from the French by BERNARD FRECHTMAN PHILOSOPHICAL LIBRARY NEW YORK Copyright, 1949, by Philosophical Library, Inc. 15 EAST 40th Street, New York, N.Y. Printed in the United States of America TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword I II What Why is Writing? Write? Whom Does One Write? 7 38 III For IV Situation of the Writer in 1947 161 Index 299 67 FOREWORD want to engage yourself," writes a young imbecile, "what are you waiting for? Join the Communist Party." A great writer who engaged himself often and disengaged himself still more often, but who has forgotten, said to me, "The worst artists are the most engaged. Look "If you at the Soviet painters" "You want tres is to murder An old critic gently complained, literature. spread out insolently all Contempt for belles-let- through your review." A petty mind calls me pigheaded, which for him is evidently the highest insult. An author who barely crawled from name sometimes awakens men accuses me of not being one war to the other and whose languishing memories in old concerned with immortality; he knows, thank God, any number of people whose chief hope it is. In the eyes of an American hack-journalist the trouble with me is that I have not read Bergson or Freud; as for Flaubert, who did not engage himself, it seems that he haunts me like remorse. Smart-alecks wink...
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