The hunger artist. It used to pay very well to stage such great performances under one’s own management, but today that is quite impossible. The hunger artist himself was the only one who could know that and, at the same time, the only spectator capable of being completely satisfied with his own fasting. This state, however, is partly self-imposed, a necessary condition of his “art.” The hunger artist spends his fasting performances, and therefore most of his life, in a cage, on display before nameless crowds. The panther’s “noble body furnished almost to bursting point with all it required seemed even to have brought its own freedom with it.” The last book published during Kafka's lifetime, A Hunger Artist (1924) explores many of the themes that were close to him: spiritual poverty, asceticism, futility, and the alienation of the modern artist. He edited the manuscript just before his death, and these four stories are some of his best known and most powerful work, marking his maturity as a writer. ''A Hunger Artist'' Synopsis ''A Hunger Artist'' is a story by Franz Kafka that focuses on a man who is a professional faster. The hunger artist is emaciated, weak, and denying himself bodily concerns, while the panther represents the force of nature’s vitality, muscular and primal. The protagonist of the story, the hunger artist fasts publicly in a cage for long periods of time. He revels in his willful self-denial and limitless suffering, but the public's inability to understand his art frustrates him deeply; he needs to feel superior to … But the reason he was never satisfied was something different. Learning to let go of disordered eating. A Hunger Artist Franz Kafka During these last decades the interest in professional fasting has markedly diminished. Established in 2009, the Hunger Artist blog explores what it's like to have anorexia nervosa and to recover from it, emphasising the crucial role of behaviour change (relearning how to eat) as the fulcrum between psychological and physiological healing. “A Hunger Artist” by Franz Kafka Analysis Through a Single Element “A Hunger Artist” by Franz Kafka is a story of a “hunger artist” that wants to show the public the art of fasting, but along the way peoples’ interests declined and caused the hunger artist to join the circus. The hunger artist is put in a cage when he obtains a post at the circus. Hunger Artist. At this point, his "art" is no longer something people celebrate him for. The blog links the personal experience (mine… Suffering as art. A Hunger Artist Learning to let go of disordered eating Emily T. Troscianko, Ph.D., is a researcher and writer with a particular interest in the links between fiction-reading and mental health. The hunger artist's art is, at a metaphorical level, suffering.The pleasure and artistry of fasting comes from the free will he exercises in his self-denial and masochism. “A Hunger Artist” is the story of one man’s feelings of intense alienation and isolation. A Hunger Artist Learning to let go of disordered eating Emily T. Troscianko, Ph.D., is a researcher and writer with a particular interest in the links between fiction-reading and mental health.