Existentialism through Psychological Approach in A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka

[The Trend, Expressionism in “A Hunger Artist”]
Expressionism is a term used to denote the use of distortion and exaggeration for emotional effect, which first surfaced in the art literature of the early twentieth century. When applied in a stylistic sense, with reference in particular to the use of intense colour, agitated brushstrokes, and disjointed space. Rather than a single style, it was a climate that affected not only the fine arts but also dance, cinema, literature and the theatre (www.wikipedia.com). Moreover, expressionism is an artistic style in which the artist attempts to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in him. He accomplishes his aim through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of formal elements.
In literature, expressionism is a movement or writing technique in which a writer depicts a character’s feelings about a subject (or the writer’s own feelings about it) rather than the objective, surface reality of the subject. A writer, in effect, presents his interpretation of what he sees. Often, the depiction is a grotesque distortion or phantasmagoric representation of reality. However, there is logic to this approach for these reasons: (1) Not everybody perceives the world in the same way. What one person may see as beautiful or good another person may see as ugly or bad. Sometimes a writer or his character suffers from a mental debility, such as depression or paranoia, which alters his perception of reality. Expressionism enables the writer to present this altered perception. Expressionist writers often present the real world as bizarre, fantastic, and nightmarish because that is how they, or the characters in their works, see the world. Their distortions are the real world (Cummings, 1999).
In a broader sense Expressionism is one of the main currents of art in the later 19th and the 20th centuries, and its qualities of highly subjective, personal, spontaneous self-expression are typical of a wide range of modern artists and art movements. The hunger artist, the protagonist of the story, is seen by those around as being strange, bizarre, because they do not see him as fully human. After all, he refuses to do something basic to life--to eat food. Watching this artist fast in his cage transports the people to some peculiar consciousness beyond their familiar everyday world, although it is unlikely they could articulate that consciousness. The hunger artist's art in that sense can be compared to the work of abstract artists whose painting, or performance works, fascinate and sometimes threaten or frighten the mundane lives of the people in any society.
The Hunger Artist frightens the people of his looks and appearance. Some are sympathetic to what he is struggling but the Hunger Artists perceives their words as a ridicule. He appreciates his job as an art which other people reflects as castigation for the artist.
“And if a good-natured man who felt sorry for him ever wanted to explain to him that his sadness probably came from his fasting, then it could happen, especially at an advanced stage of the fasting, that the hunger artist responded with an outburst of rage and began to shake the cage like an animal, frightening everyone.”
“…when she couldn’t manage this and her more fortunate companion didn’t come to her assistance but trembled and remained content to hold in front of her the hunger artist’s hand, that small bundle of knuckles, she broke into tears…”
During May 1924, Kafka was editing one of his best short stories: A Hunger Artist. In fitting irony, Kafka himself was starving as a result of his tuberculosis, which had made it nearly impossible to eat solid foods. Kafka was editing the final proofs of A Hunger Artist when he died in Wiener Wald Sanatorium on 3 June 1924 (Brod, 1995). So much of early expressionism was used in a negative way due to artists own emotional/mental problems, for example, fear of death, fear of being alone, or exclusion from society. To which this brought on work that represented pain, destruction, dark drama and doom and gloom.
The story describes the act — and predicament — of a hunger artist, a professional faster. The hunger artist would fast for days at a time, attracting large crowds at carnivals with his ability to do without nourishment. In many ways he was admired for an apparent sacrifice. But with time the crowds dwindled and the hunger artist no longer attracted carnival guests. This was due to the emerging industrialized life in the early tweinth century.
“During these last decades the interest in professional fasting has markedly diminished. It used to pay very well to stage such great performances under one’s own management, but today that is quite impossible. We live in a different world now. At one time the whole town took a lively interest in the hunger artist….”
Kafka attempted to portray the inner workings of a person's mind by, effectively, turning them ‘inside out’ and allowing mental states to shape their face, body, and even the world in which they live. This proves the physical distortion of the protagonist. Cited below are the physical appearances of the Hunger Artist:
”While for grown-ups the hunger artist was often merely a joke, something they participated in because it was fashionable, the children looked on amazed, their mouths open, holding each other’s hands for safety, as he sat there on scattered straw—spurning a chair—in black tights, looking pale, with his ribs sticking out prominently, sometimes nodding politely, answering questions with a forced smile, even sticking his arm out through the bars to let people feel how emaciated he was, but then completely sinking back into himself, so that he paid no attention to anything, not even to what was so important to him, the striking of the clock, which was the single furnishing in the cage, but merely looking out in front of him with his eyes almost shut and now and then sipping from a tiny glass of water to moisten his lips.”
“Of course, he still freely laid his bony arms in the helpful outstretched hands of the ladies bending over him, but he did not want to stand up.”
The physical consequences of a distorted situation are followed through as if it were completely real. Expressionist writers divide over the final consequences of this. Personal tragedies usually end in the destruction of the character. This notion is proven as the Hunger Artist died in the end of the story due to his “profession”.
“All right, tidy this up now,” said the supervisor. And they buried the hunger artist along with the straw.”
The obvious comparison is between Kafka and the hunger artist. Kafka, like many writers, believed he was driven to write — not necessarily enjoying the act of creation. In fact, writing was a troubling and almost painful process for Kafka. The hunger artist did not so much choose to be a professional faster as he simply was inclined to fast.
"I always wanted you to admire my fasting," said the hunger artist.
"We do admire it," said the overseer, affably.
"But you shouldn't admire it," said the hunger artist.
"Well then we don't admire it," said the hunger artist, "but why shouldn't we admire it?"
"Because I have to fast, I can't help it," said the hunger artist.
The remainder of the story is quite amazing. The artist dies as one expects, only to be replaced by a panther — kept in the same cage the artist once occupied. The death of the Hunger artist shows an expressionist feature when a protagonist of such stories mainly die at the end because of the “principle” he lives.

A Hunger Artist through Psychological Approach
Critics, rhetoricians, and philosophers since Aristotle have examined the psychological dimensions of literature, ranging from an author’s motivation and intentions to the effect of texts and performances on an audience (Habib, 2005).
Franz Kafka was well primed to write a novel about an isolated individual. Many things from Kafka’s life experiences motivated him to write such stories. Moreover, throughout his life, he was never close to his parents, Hermann Kafka and Julie Löwy Kafka. His father, a successful merchant, was a tyrant who bullied Franz psychologically. Although Kafka had relationships with several women, one to whom he was engaged, he never married. Those mentioned above are some of the biographical facts that caused his writing style. He wrote a large number of short stories about the impotence of individuals swept up into governmental, legal or bureaucratic madness. He also covered fear, paranoia and impotence in many forms, as well as the outsider syndrome. As a result, Kafkaesque has come to mean having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality.
The positing of an unconscious as the ultimate source and explanation of human thought and behaviour represented a radical disruption of the main streams of Western thought which, since Aristotle, had held that man was essentially a rational being, capable of making free choices in the spheres of intellection and morality (Habib, 2005). The Hunger Artist, in the context of the story, earns fame and glory but is dissatisfied because his manager limits his fasting to forty days. He sees himself as a part of the society because of such reasons. But in a deeper sense, indeed, he is a part of the society but he is tormented because of his “profession”. He is unconscious of what his job’s effect on him. He even blames the society of not understanding them, the hunger artists. He got unreasonable knowing that his job is a noble profession but in clarity, fasting is a form of craziness for a person like the Hunger Artist who taught it as a living but in the end, he suffers and unfortunately, dies.
According to Freud, human beings are not conscious of all their feelings, urges and desires because most of mental life is unconscious. He compared the mind to an iceberg: only a small portion is visible; the rest is below the waves of the sea. Thus, the mind consists of a small conscious portion and a vast unconscious portion (Lund, 1996). The hunger artist was unconscious of what other people see of/in him. He is not human for some people, for some a priceless beggar; but for him, he is a star, glittering with fame and money.
For a time, the hunger artist lives in visible glory, honoured by the world.
With the kind of art, the Hunger artist have, he was being repressed by himself along. The desires he have has unconsciously sublimate his gathered identity. His id, removed from reality, and it has accompanied by his ego. There was no balance to his psyche therefore it determined his death.
Not only was the artist clearly insane for starving himself to the point of death, but the neglect by the circus supervisor is just disgusting. The impresario was a money hawk, but at least he kept the Hunger Artist alive.
The revelation of the story is an artist must surrender their existence and engrave what they have lived, learned, and experienced for the sake of their art. This story is written about the life and career of an actual hunger artist, and this story is metaphorically dedicated to "the great suffering" a writer or artist must undergo to be successful. This is essential for an artist to grasp the splendor or malice of life with a fervor and be sufficiently resilient to capture the state of affairs of the moment.
The life and perspectives of a writer can be clearly represented in the Hunger Artist, which is applied to correspond to the life of "the starving artist". The elders in the community regarded the artist to be "just a joke". This is often comparable with the life of any artist who are fortunate if they are measured a success to the entertainment or public eye before their deaths. These writers or artist are often described as "starving artists" themselves in our society.
"The honor of his profession forbade it." depicts the hunger artists' zeal obligatory to execute his art. Moreover, the artists' declares he was starving himself "because I couldn't find the food I liked. If I had found it, believe me, I should have made no fuss and stuffed myself like you or anyone else (803)." These quotes signify the ardor and perseverance any artist must encompass to maintain engaging the masses notwithstanding being under the supervision of the public interest.

With the use of the psychological approach and the integration of the trend of Expressionism, there is betterment in the understanding of the short story and the deeper facts lingering in the story. The bizarre, primordial stuffs that comprise the story are horrendous. This story is disturbing from front to back, but it’s like a train wreck or a really good house fire. But still, it’s a good read.



Bibliography:
Brod, Max trans. G. Humphreys Roberts and Richard Winston; Franz Kafka: A Biography (New York: Da Capo Press, 1937. 1995)
Cummings, Michael J. A Hunger Artist (Ein Hungerkünstler). 1999.
Habib, M.A.K. A History of Literary Criticism. From Plato to the present. United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing House, 2005.
Kafka, Franz. trans. Johnston, Ian; Franz Kafka: A Hunger Artist. (Nanaimo, BC: University of Malaspina, 1924, 2011)
Lund, Mark. Literary Criticism. Baltimore County Public Schools, 1996.