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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page paper examining rhetoric in Franz Kafka's The Hunger Artist. The writer discusses various points of Kafka's story from a Marxist/materialist point of view. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_Kafka2.doc
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
short stories. The short piece seems to synthesize Kafkas own role as the artist in society. Viewed from a Marxist perspective, it is easy to see the tale
of materialism woven throughout the story. Indeed, it seems impossible to read the story without interpreting that part of it. After all, even the title of the story,
"The Hunger-Artist", with no other information given, is obvious materialistic. If the artist is hungry, then he obviously hasnt eaten, doesnt have food, and what else would that be
about besides being without the necessary means to provide the food? In other words, the artist is without money, which, again, boils down to a Marxist materialism. It
all goes back to the same thing -- the materials that we -- or in this case -- the main character possesses, is what makes us the people we are.
In "The Hunger-Artist", the hero reaches almost ridiculous heights of disastrous self-destruction in the interests of holding onto and cherishing his ego. However, in the same way,
Kafka does not merely extoll his virtues by showing the artist as some the embittered outcast or martyred victim of an uncaring society. This would be too mundane, and too
predictable of a portrayal for a writer as talented as Kafka. It has almost become cliche for writers to appear as either the poor, embittered, cutthroat, self-destructive, alcoholic chain-smoking
sort. By much the same measure, the opposite of this, the too-successful, but ulcer- and migraine- plagued artist is also cliche and overused. Kafka, instead, has chosen to
abandon both of these routes, relying instead on another portrayal. While it is true that his characterization is not necessarily any more accurate than the aforementioned cliched characterizations, The
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