The article is devoted to the topic of hunger, including mass disasters of hunger in the European literature of the XIX – XX century and contemporary literature (2000 – 2014). After a brief historical-literary reference, the author makes a suggestion of possible theoretical and literary approaches to research the works of this kind. The four poetic works of 1922-23's.: “Poem about hunger” by V.Brusov, “Two cases...” by V.Mayakovsky, “The Hunger” by M.Voloshin and “Blow, cry, bring!” by V.Khlebnikov were considered in this context.