A Hunger Artist DOC

Title	A Hunger Artist
Author	Jesse Moore
File Size	28.5 KB
File Type	DOC
Total Downloads	254
Total Views	448

Summary

Description

Kafka's "A Hunger Artist" and Deconstructionist Literary Theory "A Hunger Artist" by Franz Kafka captures themes such as isolation, death, inability to escape and love of art. Thematically, the story has many enduring literary qualities but ultimately is meaningless. The ubiquitous sense of ambiguity and uncertainty in the tone, theme, plot, setting and characterization limit its reliability; however, the author presents horror and strangeness with reliability. When examined through the scope of literary deconstructionist theory, Franz Kafka's "A Hunger Artist" is close to a meaningless story because the strong sense of ambiguity in the story and the hunger artist's inability to accomplish anything significant. Literary deconstructionists' claim that readers and critics are always searching for meaning in texts and that this quest engages readers to attribute extra meaning which does not exist. Deconstructionists tout that ambiguous parts in the text are not left ambiguous by the author but are evidence of the heterogeneousness of the text—that the text is not unified as a whole (Eagleton 115). In "A Hunger Artist" the main themes, which include isolation, inability to communicate, fragmented reality, death and the existential theme inability to escape, are not unified themes but work to undermine the significance of the story. The protagonist believes that the crowds respect him for his honor and dedication to the profession. In reality, the crowds couldn't care and know nothing of the outsider's honor and very little of his profession. His honor and pride keep him in the forty day fast, and the fast is the cause of his death. The protagonist's fascination with the fast and his profession consume him, and he dies, forgotten and abandoned on the stall of his circus cart. "A Hunger Artist" is a largely meaningless story because nothing happens in the story. Absurdism of character and plot stir the imagination, but the protagonist is unable to accomplish anything significant. Thus, while the reader can empathize with the protagonist's sense of alienation, horror and confusion, it is nearly impossible for the reader to appreciate the protagonist's central dillema....