ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos

A Hunger Artist (Kafka) 4687 Views


Share It!


Description:

Guy in a black leotard. In a cage. Not eating. Weird? Yes. Popular? Absolutely. Kafka's short story includes iconic artist-figures: a mouse singer, a trapeze artist, and of course, the hunger artist. Through these characters, Kafka explores how art relates to real life, the conflict between the artist and society, and the cost of artistic perfection.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

A Hunger Artist, a la Shmoop. Brought to you by Curves.

00:07

You're a huge Scott Baio fan, right?

00:09

No? Um... Duran Duran?

00:12

Alf? The reason these names may not sound familiar

00:14

to you is that they all reached the height of their popularity during a decade known

00:18

as "the 1980's."

00:19

If you've never heard of the 1980's, ask your parents. They can tell you stories.

00:21

So... if these folks were such a big deal at one point in time...

00:23

...why did their fame fizzle? In Franz Kafka's A Hunger Artist...

00:27

... we are introduced to a man who is famous for losing weight.

00:30

He was kind of the "Jared" of his time. For a while, he tours Europe and experiences

00:34

incredible success...

00:35

...his presence always causing throngs of people to come and gawk through the bars of

00:40

his cage. But suddenly... the crowds thin.

00:42

He is no longer the mega-star he once was.

00:44

What happened? Did his act simply get old?

00:47

There's probably only so much staring-at-a-starving-person an audience can do before they find themselves

00:52

wanting more.

00:57

So it could be that his act was just as... fresh as ever...

01:00

...but he fell victim to his followers' short attention spans.

01:05

Or was it less his fans' fault... than his own?

01:07

True, all he had to do was sit there in his cage and... not eat...

01:11

...but surely he must have been better at... not eating... then all those other ... hacks..

01:19

Why else would his star have risen so high?

01:22

Is it possible he just got tired of the whole process and started phoning it in?

01:26

No one wants to spend good money to watch someone starve...

01:30

...when it's quite clear they'd rather be somewhere else.

01:34

Maybe our hunger artist was replaced.

01:36

He might have been on top of his game, and his fans might have been sticking loyally

01:41

by his side...

01:42

...but if everyone suddenly got a taste of the next big thing...

01:44

...maybe he just got kicked to the curb.

01:47

Which could explain why this guy is no longer considered "A-list."

01:51

So what was to blame for a drop in our artist's ticket sales?

01:54

An old, tired act?

01:56

Fickle fans?

01:57

Or the next big thing? Shmoop amongst yourselves.

Up Next

Utopias Becoming Dystopias
29763 Views

This video defines utopias and dystopias, and investigates how a utopia might become a dystopia. Can a seemingly perfect world actually be a dystop...

Related Videos

The Importance of Being Earnest Summary
123036 Views

They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...

The Giver Summary
105891 Views

Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...

Invisible Man (Ellison)
1818 Views

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
1255 Views

Do not go gentle into that good night. In fact, if it's past your curfew, don't go at all into that good night. You just stay in your good bed and...