Introduction & Overview of A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka

A Hunger Artist Introduction

Franz Kafka's "A Hunger Artist" was first written in 1922 and published in a collection also entitled A Hunger Artist. Although Kafka died in 1924, as he was still in the process of correcting the galley proofs, the collection was nevertheless published that same year. "A Hunger Artist" is one of the few manuscripts which Kafka did not request that his friends burn or otherwise destroy after his death.

"A Hunger Artist," which takes place in an unspecified time and place, is about a man worldfamous for his public performances of the act of fasting, for as much as forty days at a time. Even at the height of his career, the hunger artist is unsatisfied with his work and frustrated by both his manager and his audiences, who never fully appreciate his true talent or the purity of his "art." The hunger artist struggles internally with his sense...
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