Hunger artist: Difference between revisions
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The phenomenon has been relayed to modern audiences through [[Franz Kafka]]'s 1922 short story ''[[A Hunger Artist]]''. |
The phenomenon has been relayed to modern audiences through [[Franz Kafka]]'s 1922 short story ''[[A Hunger Artist]]''. |
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Hunger artists should be distinguished from two other phenomena of the time: "[[fasting girls|Fasting Women]]" such as [[Martha Taylor]] and [[Ann Moore (impostor)|Ann Moore]] who refused to eat while staying home, usually explained as some kind of [[miracle]] and later exposed as fraud; and "Living Skeletons", people of exceptionally low body weight performing in [[freak show]]s.<ref name=Gooldin>{{cite journal| year=2003|volume=9|number=27|pages=27–53|journal=Body & Society|author=Sigal Gooldin|title=Fasting Women, Living Skeletons and Hunger Artists: Spectacles of Body and Miracles at the Turn of a Century}}</ref> |
Hunger artists should be distinguished from two other phenomena of the time: "[[fasting girls|Fasting Women]]" such as [[Martha Taylor]] and [[Ann Moore (impostor)|Ann Moore]] who refused to eat while staying home, usually explained as some kind of [[miracle]] and later exposed as fraud; and "Living Skeletons", people of exceptionally low body weight performing in [[freak show]]s.<ref name=Gooldin>{{cite journal| year=2003|volume=9|number=27|pages=27–53|journal=Body & Society|author=Sigal Gooldin|title=Fasting Women, Living Skeletons and Hunger Artists: Spectacles of Body and Miracles at the Turn of a Century}}</ref> |
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A Hunger Artist’s show "was precisely |
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<nowiki> </nowiki>about suffering and overcoming difficulties. The performer, often presented in a |
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<nowiki> </nowiki>cage, had to overcome the difficulties of his embodiment. He had to overcome |
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<nowiki> </nowiki>his desires and mortal being. It was this very struggle that was put on the stage, |
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<nowiki> </nowiki>just as much as the material body that was the product of it. This show was |
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<nowiki> </nowiki>referred to simultaneously as Hunger Artists and Fasting Artists, a titling reflecting the dual meaning involved in the spectacle: a spectacle of both hunger and of |
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<nowiki> </nowiki>its mastering.<ref>Body and Society Vol. 9 No. 2 |
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02 Gooldin (jr/t) 6/6/03 11:17 am Page 46</ref>Sigal Gooldin sees hunger artists thusly: "The performance evolved around achievement; one that was acquired |
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through the labor of pain, suffering and self-inflicted hunger. It was, in short, a |
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"An unbreakable |
"An unbreakable |
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Revision as of 19:31, 22 September 2013
Hunger artists or starvation artists were performers, common in Europe and America in the 18th, 19th and early 20th century, who starved themselves for extended periods of time, for the amusement of paying audiences. The phenomenon first appeared in the 17th century and saw its heyday in the 1880s. Hunger artists were almost always male, traveled from city to city and performed widely advertised fasts of up to 40 days.[1] Several hunger artists were found to have cheated during their performances.[2]
The phenomenon has been relayed to modern audiences through Franz Kafka's 1922 short story A Hunger Artist.
Hunger artists should be distinguished from two other phenomena of the time: "Fasting Women" such as Martha Taylor and Ann Moore who refused to eat while staying home, usually explained as some kind of miracle and later exposed as fraud; and "Living Skeletons", people of exceptionally low body weight performing in freak shows.[3]
A Hunger Artist’s show "was precisely about suffering and overcoming difficulties. The performer, often presented in a cage, had to overcome the difficulties of his embodiment. He had to overcome his desires and mortal being. It was this very struggle that was put on the stage, just as much as the material body that was the product of it. This show was referred to simultaneously as Hunger Artists and Fasting Artists, a titling reflecting the dual meaning involved in the spectacle: a spectacle of both hunger and of its mastering.[4]Sigal Gooldin sees hunger artists thusly: "The performance evolved around achievement; one that was acquired
through the labor of pain, suffering and self-inflicted hunger. It was, in short, a modern spectacular version of the disciplined self", one that can be interpreted in Foucauldian terms in the context of "the modern governmentality of ‘biopower’".[3]
"An unbreakable record was set by an American physician by the name of Henry S. Tanner, who fasted for 40 days in the city of New York in 1880 (Vandereycken and Van Deth, 1996: 83–4). The New York newspapers who covered the so-called ‘Starvation Comedy’ reported that at least 6000 people, each paying 25 cents admission, came to see Tanner during the final week of his fast. In the years that followed, Hunger Artists in America and throughout Europe attempted to break Tanner’s record. In the course of four years, between 1886 and 1890, a famous Hunger Artist from Italy, Giovanni Succi, performed in almost all the major cities in the Western world and claimed to have accomplished 32 ‘fasting performances’, varying from 20 to 30 days in duration"[5]
References
- ^ Vandereycken, Walter and Ron Van Deth (1996). From Fasting Saints to Anorexic Girls: The History of Self-Starvation. New York University Press. pp. 81–95.
- ^ Peter Payer (14/15 December 2001). "Die brotloseste aller Künste. Eine kleine Geschichte der Hungerkunst". Wiener Zeitung/Extra (in German).
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b Sigal Gooldin (2003). "Fasting Women, Living Skeletons and Hunger Artists: Spectacles of Body and Miracles at the Turn of a Century". Body & Society. 9 (27): 27–53.
- ^ Body and Society Vol. 9 No. 2 02 Gooldin (jr/t) 6/6/03 11:17 am Page 46
- ^ http://bod.sagepub.com/content/9/2/27.full.pdf
Further reading
- Peter Payer, Hungerkünstler in Wien. Eine verschwundene Attraktion, Verlag Sonderzahl, Wien 2002. Template:De icon