Artist Pain Exposed in Kafka's A Hunger Artist
In "A Hunger Artist", Kafka comments on the life of the modern artist through the life of a hunger artist. Kafka comments that the modern artist is always dissatisfied with his or her art. The modern artist also is trapped in a harsh and capricious world, in which the artist struggles to maintain his or her audience by pushing the extreme, but are cheated because they do not receive his or her recognition. Finally, in "A Hunger Artist" Kafka refers to the modern artist's struggle between the need for fame and the need for isolation. As a modern artist, Kafka has experienced the qualities that characterize the modern artist and his experiences have greatly influenced his work, particularly "A Hunger Artist".
The modern artist, as seen with the hunger artist, will always have dissatisfaction with his or her art. The hunger artist was dissatisfied with his work because he was dissatisfied with himself. He was dissatisfied because fasting was easy for him. Although he reveled to the world his secret, the world did not understand him and some even had the "imprudence" to call him a cheat. The hunger artist was also dissatisfied because he wanted to fast for more than forty days, but the impresario refused. Critic Frederick Karl remarks that the hunger artist could only find satisfaction when he achieves purification the closer he comes to the fine line when life and death touch.i[i] Kafka, a modern artist, was dissatisfied with his works. He attempted to achieve purification and perfection through a strict diet and lifestyle, but he failed to make his writings perfect and demanded that his works be burned after he died.ii[ii]
According to Kafka,...
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...position in society. The modern artist is an outsider, or rather, a joke that "happened to be in fashion". The artist is doomed to rejection and isolation by a harsh and capricious world.
End Notes
i Karl, Frederick. Franz Kafka: Representative Man. New York: Fromm International Publishing Corporation, 1991.
ii Updike, John. Foreword to Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories. New York: Schoken Books, 1971.
iii Winkler, R.O.C.. Twentieth Century Literary Criticism Vol. 2. New York: Gale Research, 1981
iv Karl, Frederick. Franz Kafka: Representative Man. New York: Fromm International Publishing Corporation, 1991.
v Karl, Frederick. Franz Kafka: Representative Man. New York: Fromm International Publishing Corporation, 1991.
vi Karl, Frederick. Franz Kafka: Representative Man. New York: Fromm International Publishing Corporation, 1991.
Hoehl, James J. (1998,Winter). Archives of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons: Sexual Dysfunction and the Elderly. (vol.2,no.1)[Online.]
In “A Hunger Artist” Kafka portrays the artist as an obsessed person with starving himself. Not even death matter as long as he gets that attention he wants from society. Kafka wants society to be the reason that artist became they way he is now. “He worked with integrity, but the world cheated [the artist] of his reward” (Kafka 144). The Hunger Artist no longer has anything significant in his life but the only thing that makes him the way he is because he wants the public’s attention. Society demands are high and not easy to achieve, to the point where the artist was the center of attention in big cities with beautiful girls waiting to help him come out of his cage. But now he is in small cage, neglected by everyone, even when it comes to fasting “no one [counts] the days, no one, not even the hunger artist himself, [know] his extent of his achievement” (144). In the end, the hunger artist body could no longer sustain himself after the long-lasting fast, however society was moving on and he was not. Society was the downfall of his life, wanting public attention is not easy with a cruel society that demands change and new entertainment.
The Metamorphosis is said to be one of Franz Kafka's best works of literature. It shows the difficulties of living in a modern society and the struggle for acceptance of others when in a time of need. In this novel Kafka directly reflects upon many of the negative aspects of his personal life, both mentally and physically. The relationship between Gregor and his father is in many ways similar to Franz and his father Herrman. The Metamorphosis also shows resemblance to some of Kafka's diary entries that depict him imagining his own extinction by dozens of elaborated methods. This paper will look into the text to show how this is a story about the author's personal life portrayed through his dream-like fantasies.
There are many parallels and differences between Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” and "A Hunger Artist". Kafka portrays these differences and similarities very effectively through his utilization of elements such as transformation, dehumanization, and dedication to work. Through his works, Kafka communicates with the reader in such a way that almost provokes and challenges one’s imagination and creativity.
Franz Kafka, b. Prague, Bohemia (then belonging to Austria), July 3, 1883, d. June 3, 1924, has come to be one of the most influential writers of this century. Virtually unknown during his lifetime, the works of Kafka have since been recognized as symbolizing modern man's anxiety-ridden and grotesque alienation in an unintelligible, hostile, or indifferent world. Kafka came from a middle-class Jewish family and grew up in the shadow of his domineering shopkeeper father, who impressed Kafka as an awesome patriarch. The feeling of impotence, even in his rebellion, was a syndrome that became a pervasive theme in his fiction. Kafka did well in the prestigious German high school in Prague and went on to receive a law degree in 1906. This allowed him to secure a livelihood that gave him time for writing, which he regarded as the essence--both blessing and curse--of his life. He soon found a position in the semipublic Workers' Accident Insurance institution, where he remained a loyal and successful employee until--beginning in 1917-- tuberculosis forced him to take repeated sick leaves and finally, in 1922, to retire. Kafka spent half his time after 1917 in sanatoriums and health resorts, his tuberculosis of the lungs finally spreading to the larynx.
...and ridiculed, especially for entertainment purposes. Nonetheless, the Artist shows a hunger for fame, even if the fame and attention comes from a sick and wild point of view. The Hunger Artist dies a man of sorrow and failure, but is reborn as his opposite, a hungry, strong panther eating everything that comes its way. Maybe in some way the Artist represents a lost tradition of fasting which seemed to come and go, as well as maybe representing the desire that our generation today tends to eat too much and require too much. In the end, the Hunger Artist will be remembered as an outcast of society, and after all his years of fasting, his accomplishments are forgotten, easily replaced as if he never existed.
Smith P.J., Cowie, H., & Blades, M. (2003). Understanding Children’s Development (4th ed.). London, UK: Blackwell Publishing. (Chapter 15 covers the work of Vygotsky, Bruner and Call)
Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are different learning methods. The two methods have the word conditioning in common. What is conditioning? Conditioning is the acquisition of specific patterns of behavior in the presence of well-defined stimuli. Both classical and operant conditioning are basic forms of learning. Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which an organism learns to transfer a natural response from one stimulus to another, previously neutral stimulus. Manipulating reflexes does this. Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which the likelihood of a behavior is increased or decreased by the use of reinforcement or punishment. Operant conditioning deals with more cognitive thought process.
Existing research on sexual activity of older adults suffers from inadequate descriptions of the population, particularly across different cultures and ethnic groups and in regard to education and financial status. In a 1999 American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) survey of 1384 older adults, respondents reported that sexual activity was pleasurable. The AARP survey found that older adults with partners felt that a satisfying sexual relationship was important, whereas those without partners did not feel such urgency. Women over age 75 were less likely to have a partner than older men, and as such, seemed to have a less positive attitude toward or interest in sexual activity than men of the same age. Men with or without a partner had more frequent thoughts, fantasies, and feelings of sexual desire (and self-stimulation) than ...
Kafka, Franz. "The Judgement." Trans. Willa and Edwin Muir. The Complete Stories. Ed. Nahum N. Glatzer. New York: Schocken, 1971. 77-88.
Franz Kafka’s stories and novels contain such disturbing situations that the word Kafkaesque has been created to define the most unpleasant and bizarre aspects of everyday modern life. A master of dark humor and an artist of unique vision, Kafka captures perfectly the anxiety and absurdity of contemporary urban society (Norton Anthology 1866). In 1912, Kafka produced his longest, as well as his most famous novella written, The Metamorphosis. Metamorphosis means change, which is something readers see a lot of in this novella. It is about a young man, Gregor Samsa, who wakes up and sees that is has been transformed into a bug. He, as well as his families, lives are completely turned upside down. They had all depended so heavily on Gregor, and
This paper will first look into the physiological and psychological causes of erectile dysfunction in men. Then, this paper will delve into the advances that have been made in preventing erectile dysfunction. Finally, this paper will explore the ramifications both erectile dysfunction and ‘cures’ have on the majority of the men affected by it, older persons.
Franz Kafka is known as one of the most prominent writers from the twentieth century. In 1883 he was born in Prague, which was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at that time. Kafka’s family is of Jewish decent and was a part of the German speaking community, which was hated and distrusted by the Czech speaking majority of Prague (Kafka’s Life). Kafka is known for his intricate style of writing on peculiar subjects. Many of his novels are based on “real world” problems and societies. Kafka often presents a grotesque representation of society through themes of isolation, guilt, and corruption (Kafka’s Life). The Trial is known as one of Kafka’s greatest feats. It follows a man by the name of Josef K and his sudden arrest one morning for an unnamed crime. Josef desperately tries to thwart the arrest against an unjust and secretive court system, but is eventually killed (The Trial, Kafka). The Trial is not only about a man who lives in a corrupt society, but also a critique on society in the real world. Josef K is a man surrounded by corruption; the government that tries him is unjust, the people he meets are tarnished, and even the air that he breathes is thick with fraud. Josef K seems to be the only seemingly guiltless person in his society. However, corruption marginalizes Kafka from society and eventually kills him off.
Both operant and classical conditioning was used in my household. For example an act of operant conditioning was when I would ignore my chores my mom would say that I could not watch television until my chores were finished. She did this negative reinforcement to motivate me to complete my duties. However, this negative reinforcement did not encourage my brother to do his chores because he did not enjoy watching television. Because a certain consequence might not be the same for each individual, I believe that for operant conditioning to be successful the reinforcement or the consequence must correlate with the subject in order to increase or decrease a certain behavior. An example of classical conditioning in my life would be when my father opens the garage door when he arrives home. When he does this the door makes a distinct sound, and eventually my dog started to associate the sound of the garage door and his appearance. Now every time the door opens my dog gets excited expecting my father’s arrival, whether or not he is actually there. This example teaches me that my dog is experiencing classical conditioning. My dog is having an involuntary response to the sound of the garage door because of an association with my father’s
2011, p281). Regardless of their differences or similarities however, both have played an important part in the study of learning. With operant conditioning allowing to condition more complex behaviours that can be done with classical conditioning, and with classical conditioning being what helped discover operant conditioning in the first place, it can be argued here that the two are complementary. Indeed, one cannot speak of operant conditioning without mentioning classical conditioning, and vice