Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Handke, Peter (Vol. 135) - Linda C. DeMeritt (essay date 1987)

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page
4. Tweet This

Linda C. DeMeritt (essay date 1987)

SOURCE: “Peter Handke: From Alienation to Orientation,” in Modern Austrian Literature, Vol. 20, No. 1, 1987, pp. 53-71.

[In the following essay, DeMeritt examines the transition from alienation and fear to harmony and happiness in Handke's literary works, drawing attention to such thematic developments in Die Stunde der wahren Empfindung and Die Lehre der Sainte-Victoire.]

The extreme subjectivity which characterizes the works of Peter Handke in the late sixties and mid-seventies is based upon an experience of alienation. Objective predetermined systems and explanations are no longer valid, and the subject is propelled into an inner world of question and doubt. The fear caused by alienation permeates Handke's earlier works, a disturbing, uneasy atmosphere of disquiet and displacement. More and more, however, this tone of subjective anxiety gives way to a quiet objectivity. Handke's more...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Michael Hays (essay date January 1981)
   2. June Schlueter (essay date January 1981)
   3. Bruce Cook (review date 26 August 1984)
   4. D. J. Enright (review date 14 August 1986)
   5. Linda C. DeMeritt (essay date 1987)
   6. Michael Linstead (essay date 1987)
   7. Gail Pool (review date 8 July 1988)
   8. Paul Oldfield (review date 5 August 1988)
   9. Ursula Hegi (review date 16 July 1989)
   10. Mark Kamine (review date 2-16 October 1989)
   11. John Leonard (review date 4 December 1989)
   12. John Updike (review date 25 December 1989)
   13. Erich Wolfgang Skwara (review date Winter 1990)
   14. Erich Wolfgang Skwara (review date Summer 1990)
   15. Ursula Hegi (review date 1 July 1990)
   16. Hugo Caviola (essay date Autumn 1990)
   17. Eva-Maria Metcalf (essay date Autumn 1990)
   18. Michael Hofmann (review date 24 May 1991)
   19. J. J. White (review date 4 October 1991)
   20. Erich Wolfgang Skwara (review date Autumn 1992)
   21. Gitta Honegger (essay date 1993)
   22. Thomas H. Falk (review date Summer 1993)
   23. Erich Wolfgang Skwara (review date Autumn 1993)
   24. Richard Arthur Firda (essay date 1993)
   25. Times Literary Supplement (review date 16 September 1994)
   26. Gitta Honegger (review date 1995)
   27. Erich Wolfgang Skwara (review date Summer 1995)
   28. Edward Timms (review date 26 April 1996)
   29. Theodore Ziolkowski (review date Winter 1997)
   30. Tom Sellar (review date 1997)
   31. David Rieff (review date 12 January 1997)
   32. Theodore Ziolkowski (review date Summer 1997)
   33. Erich Wolfgang Skwara (review date Winter 1998)
   34. Thomas McGonigle (review date 20 September 1998)
   35. William H. Gass (review date 29 November 1998)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright