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Directions: In the appropriate conference on our class Web Board,
discuss one or all of the following.
- Many of Kafka's stories function on the level of allegory or
parable, and frequently have fantastical and surreal events as
abstractions of the human experience (a trial in which the crime
is never revealed, transformation into a giant bug). For what
might "The Hunger Artist" be an allegory?
- Consider what the following elements of the story might
symbolize:
- Fasting
- The hunger artist's cage
- The forty-day period to which his fast is limited.
The circus.
- The panther who takes the hunger artist's place.
- Gaping spectators, butchers, theatrical managers, circus
people—the world of the Hunger Artist is mercenary and
materialistic. He is described as a “martyr.” A martyr to
what?
- Notice that no one in the story is given a name. Why might that
be?
Where and when do you envision this story taking place?
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