A Hunger Artist

by Franz Kafka

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Student Question

What does the "search for perfection" mean, and how does it hinder Kafka's protagonist in A Hunger Artist?

Expert Answers

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For Kafka's work the drive for perfection is almost a solitary one.  It seems to be a quest for an ideal that few, if any, would understand or appreciate.  The notion here is that individuals, in this case, the artist, strive to a realm which embraces the highest of caliber in the production of their art.  The hunger artist is continually driven to push himself to a limit that represents the penultimate in artistic creation.  In this setting, the search for perfection is this realm where an artist is able to seek out the highest in production of art.  It is difficult to attain, almost spiritual in its scope and nature.  This might be why Kafka's hunger artist "fasts" and does so in an almost "meditative fashion."  The artist strives for perfection in his art because of his cursed capacity to do so.  At the end, when the artist suggests that he never found a food with which to "stuff himself," the implication is that the artist's striving for perfection is a result of dissatisfaction with what is there and a continually seeking of perfectibility beyond what is present.

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