„The art of starvation” by Franz Kafka

Abstract

This text is an attempt at a literature and cultural analysis of the phenomenon of starvation, presented from the perspective of the cultural convention, as a terrifying spectacle observed by society, in which human curiosity, deformed body, monstrosity and death play a fundamental role. The art of hunger with its accompanying suffering and irreversible bodily changes is described by Franz Kafka in the short story A Hunger Artist. The title character of the song arouses extreme emotions, especially as a figure of a street artist – an eccentric, a changer or a prank of nature. This short form of prose is a pretext for considering disturbed bodylife.