Franz Kafka’s dark and disturbing short story, A Hunger Artist
Alex Hancock and Nick Barovic-Hancock read the Muir translation of one of the strangest of Kafka’s works.
“A Hunger Artist” (“Ein Hungerkunstler”) is one of the last short stories of Franz Kafka (1883-1924). It is one of the four stories included in his last collection, which is named for the story and which was published shortly after he died. This translation is by Willa Muir, who shared credit with her husband Edwin for her translations of many works by Kafka, including The Castle, Amerika, The Trial, and Metamorphosis and Other Stories. “A Hunger Artist” is Fermat’s Last Theater’s second encounter with the works of Kafka; we did an original production of The Trial in 2016.
Thanks to the Madison Arts Commission for help with funding our Podcast Project.