Peter Handke's Landscapes of Discourse: An Exploration of Narrative and Cultural Space. (Studies in Austrian Literature, Culture, and Thought)

Peter Handke is an important and controversial European writer whose work is strongly marked by a sense of place and an interest in landscape. His work is not descriptive in the traditional sense. Instead he uses his landscapes as an instrument for exploring the relationship between fiction and reality, sometimes even touching on politically sensitive issues in an unconventional and unpopular manner. Not only do the landscapes described by the author regularly become transformed into unreal mythic spaces, but in addition they can be read metaphorically as the spaces in which the writing process unfolds. -- This study traces the development of Handke's treatment of landscape, paying particular attention to the influence of the visual arts and to his position within the broader discursive landscape of contemporary literature.