Kafka's stories have been compared to his contemporary, the painter Edvard Munch (pronounced Moonk). Find a book of prints of Munch's paintings and discuss the ways in which they portray a "Kafka-esque" mood. In what ways do they seem to depict a nightmarish world, similar to that in "A Hunger Artist," in which similar feelings of alienation, entrapment, oppression, self-hatred, and angst are expressed? In what ways is the effect of the visual medium of painting used by Munch different from the effect of the written word used by Kafka's in his stories?

Kafka and his writing have been strongly associated with the city of Prague. But since Kafka's birth in 1883, Prague has gone through many political, economic, and cultural changes. The national identity of the city has gone from being a part of the Kingdom of Bohemia to the Republic of...