Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences, of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, lizak2000@mail.ru
This article investigates reception of the figure of Austrian writer Peter Handke (b. 1942), the Nobel Prize winner in Literature in 2019, within discourses of actual German culture (in «literary» and «mass media» contexts) in parallel with his own understanding of the Writer’s Mission, its aims, ideals, and complications. Being a Writer as a way to get through the totality of «invalid communication» («verhinderte Kommunikation») in the real world is the most important topic of Handke’s own literary creation: beginning with «The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick» (1970), «Slow Homecoming» (1979), «Repetition» (1986), «The afternoon of a writer» (1987) and ending in his later texts. Besides the above mentioned works of Peter Handke, the present paper analyzes three essays on his work written by a world famous German writer and literary scholar W.G. Sebald (1944-2001), who took close to his heart the described topic as well (especially the tradition of Linguistic Scepticism going back to the ideas of Ludwig Wittgenstein). The paper also considers a number of publications in the German press in October 2019 dealing with Peter Handke being awarded the Nobel Prize and the heated debate that followed.
Writer in literature, Writer in mass media, modern German literature, modern Austrian literature, “invalid communication”, linguistic scepticism, Nobel Prize in Literature, Peter Handke, W.G. Sebald
Download textFor citing: Sokolova E.V. (2020). Oscillation of the image: Images of “Writer” (by) Peter Handke in mass media and in W.G. Sebald’s Essays. Human being: Image and essence. Humanitarian aspects. Moscow: INION RAN. Vol. 3 (43): Author’s image and self-reflection in the European literature, pp. 119-143. DOI: 10.31249/chel/2020.03.08