Handke, Peter (Vol. 10) - Bonnie Marranca
BONNIE MARRANCA
Handke's body of work is chiefly concerned with language and behavior, a major interest with central European writers. (p. 272)
Kaspar, perhaps Handke's most praised play, is a major dramatic work of the contemporary theatre. Drawing on the absurdist influences of Beckett and Ionesco it is, nevertheless, Handke's personal critique of society which regulates reality by means of its language structure. In it Handke attempts to show his audience the difference between a world shaped by consciousness and one burdened by platitudes.
Any serious playwright writing in the German language is forced necessarily to undergo a comparison between himself and Bertolt Brecht, if not technically, at the very least in terms of engagement. Handke's plays resemble Brecht's dramaturgically in their "estrangement" of the audience, their use of a nonliterary language, popular forms of entertainment, and social [gestures]. Significantly, however, the...
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