science

Hunger artist

Hunger artist is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hunger artist rather than just read about it. In short: Hunger artists or starvation artists were performers, common in Europe and America in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, 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.

Key takeaways

Hunger artist belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hunger artist to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hunger artist from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Hunger artists or starvation artists were performers, common in Europe and America in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, 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. Several hunger artists were found to have cheated during their performances. The phenomenon has been relayed to modern audiences through Franz Kafka's 1922 short story "A Hunger Artist", contained in the collection of the same name. 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. Sigal Gooldin sees hunger artists as "a modern spectacular version of the disciplined self" that can be interpreted in Foucauldian terms in the context of "the modern governmentality of 'biopower'".

References

Further reading Peter Payer, Hungerkünstler in Wien. Eine verschwundene Attraktion, Wien: Verlag Sonderzahl, 2002. (in German)

External links Ruben De Somer: Fasting Wonders: The Hunger Artist From the 17th Through 20th Century

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hunger artist

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hunger artist claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hunger artist before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hunger artist ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hunger artist

In research: Hunger artist appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hunger artist in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hunger artist is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Hunger, Performance art, Visual arts stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hunger artist outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hunger artist in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hunger artist means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hunger artist out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hunger artist in simple terms?

Why does Hunger artist matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hunger artist?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hunger artist.