Original link: https://blog.aeilot.top/2023/08/15/kafka-hunger/
The Hungry Performing Artist, a collection of short stories that Kafka had planned to print, was published posthumously. Among them, the novel with the same name as the collection is also one of his most cherished short stories.
The plot of the story is roughly as follows:
A hunger art was popular many years ago, and people rushed to watch it. Hungry artists often consciously refrain from eating for the sake of artistic honor, but the public will elect guards, and the guards also intentionally leave space for him to eat secretly. The artist shows his ability to starve, hoping to dispel doubts, but there are always people who disagree. Hunger performances often end within 40 days in order to maximize income. The manager will show admiration for the artist, the supreme honor, and the cheers of the people, but the artist does not take it seriously. All that carnival is for the manager’s revenue. Hunger artists hope to be hungry again and challenge the limit. The manager used various explanations and photos to convince the public of his story. The public may pity or suspect the artist as a charlatan. Artists are dissatisfied and not understood.
Years later, when hunger performances in the streets and alleys were no longer popular, people went to the circus performances to see the tamed beasts in cages. Hungry Art Abandoned? Nobody cares about the demise of the old charlatan. Perhaps the artist should change careers, but he loves this kind of performance, bid farewell to the manager, and went to work in the big circus. In the circus, he was placed on the main road leading to the zoo. People might not notice him until they are off to watch the beast. He still performs and challenges his limits, but unfortunately even the staff who recorded his starvation time have left. No one cares about his grades. People prefer to see the beast, and people call this hunger art a hoax.
After the performance, the steward found the cage and the artist in the cage. He’s still holding on, he doesn’t want to eat. “I can only starve, I have no other way.” “Because I can’t find food that suits my taste. If I find such food, please believe that I will not make such a sensation, and like you and everyone, Well fed.” He died, he was determined, he would continue to be hungry.
A little leopard was replaced in the cage. People love to see this little leopard even more, and they are reluctant to leave…
This is the plot of Kafka’s The Hunger of the Performing Artist. Artists who earn audiences by starving performances are not understood when such performances are popular, and are forgotten when the performances are no longer popular. But he insisted on this kind of art. He believed that hunger was the way to realize himself, and he could not find any other way. “There is no other way than starvation”.
“Hunger show” and “40 days of starvation” are absurd stories, but they are thought-provoking and reveal profound truths. When a person finds his love and the way to realize his value, he is willing to resist the incomprehensible eyes of the world and sacrifice his life for it. A lifetime of loneliness, a lifetime of pain, are worthless at the moment of realizing value. This thing is a hunger performance for a hunger performance artist, and it is writing for Kafka. Writing was important to Kafka, who considered writing “a form of prayer”.
It is said that more than a month before Kafka’s death, when he read the proof of this article on his sickbed, he couldn’t help crying, which can be seen from the resonance of the protagonist in the book.
Franz Kafka was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He had been trained as a lawyer, and after completing his law studies he was hired by an insurance company, and in his spare time, Kafka began writing short stories. Regarding the remaining time at work, Kafka often complained that it was difficult to have more spare time for writing, because he had to spend a lot of time on work. He regrets devoting too much attention to his Brotberuf (“day job”, i.e. “living”). Because of the oppression and exclusion of Jews in Europe at that time, Kafka often complained that he was a Jew. His low, passive complaints and dissatisfaction with the Jewish situation also have an impact on the style of his works, but Kafka’s self-identity as a Jew did not help him much. Kafka was not famous during his lifetime, most of his works were published after his death, and he became famous only after his death.
Perhaps Kafka is also such a “hunger artist”, hoping to realize his own value with his unique absurd literature. During his lifetime, he was not favored by the public. In his will, he hoped to destroy his work, but his work was published by a friend, so it became known to the world.
He loves writing, is in awe of words, and performs his own “hunger show” after work.
Because there is nothing else he can do but write.
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