In the 19^th and early 20^th century there was a category of performers known as hunger artists or starvation artists.  Almost always male, hunger artists traveled from town to town and performed public fasts that would last for up to 40 days while locked in cages, and were distinct from “living skeletons”, people with emaciated appearances who appeared in freak shows.  Many people became aware of the practice from Franz Kafka’s 1922 story “The Hunger Artist”,  in which the performer reckons with public reactions, which range from consolations to suspicions of cheating; with the impresario’s “perversions of the truth, and, finally, with a sudden and steep decline in popular taste for the act. He breaks with the promoter and joins a circus, only to suffer from increasing neglect of both crowds and management.  All this does not lead to a happy ending. The story captures the frequent Kafka themes of isolation, despair, angst, and alienation. While critics largely agree that the story is allegorical, they disagree about its meaning.  Some see saintliness and asceticism; some see the classic story of the misunderstood artist.  There is no disagreement, however, about Kafka’s masterful depiction of strange and unsettling states of mind.

Play sample: 

Download a PDF datasheet