SOURCE: "Modernism and Death, Kafka and Death," in Franz Kafka: Representative Man, Ticknor & Fields, 1991, pp. 678-81.

In this excerpt, Karl analyzes "A Hunger Artist" in the context of Kafka's life and times.

Kafka in "A Hunger Artist" was not merely creating emblems of the self. He was playing roles, as he had in his letters and in many other of his fictional works. The role he played out was that of a man who feared invalidation of self more than he feared death: he had to carry through in his imagination the most extreme form of art to justify himself as an artist, although his justification led to the artist's death. It was better to play such an extreme role, leading to certain death, than to chance the fact that he might live without having made that final sacrifice. Roleplaying here has the typical shape of a Kafkan...