Peter Handke (German: [ˈpeːtɐ ˈhantkə]; born 6 December 1942) is an Austrian writer, playwright, translator, poet, film director, and screenwriter. He received the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature for his work, which uses creative language to explore the edges and unique aspects of human experiences. Handke is regarded as one of the most important and original writers in the German language during the second half of the 20th century.

In the late 1960s, he became known for his experimental plays, such as Offending the Audience (1966), where actors examine the nature of theater and sometimes criticize or praise the audience, and Kaspar (1967). His novels, which are often very calm and unemotional, describe characters in extreme mental states. Examples include The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1970) and The Left-Handed Woman (1976). After his mother’s suicide in 1971, he wrote the novella A Sorrow Beyond Dreams (1972), which reflects her life.

A main idea in his work is the way everyday language, reality, and logic can feel dull or illogical. Handke was part of the Grazer Gruppe (a group of writers) and the Grazer Autorenversammlung. He also helped start the Verlag der Autoren publishing house in Frankfurt. He worked with director Wim Wenders and wrote screenplays for films like The Wrong Move and Wings of Desire.

In 1973, he won the Georg Büchner Prize, the most important literary award for German-language writing. In 1999, he returned the prize money to the German Academy for Language and Literature as a protest against the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Handke has faced controversy for publicly supporting Serbian nationalism after the Yugoslav Wars.

Life

Peter Handke was born in Griffen, a town in Carinthia, Austria, which was part of Germany at that time. His father, Erich Schönemann, was a bank clerk and German soldier, but Handke did not meet him until he was an adult. His mother, Maria, was a Carinthian Slovene who married Bruno Handke, a tram conductor and German soldier from Berlin, before Peter was born. The family lived in Pankow, a district in Berlin that was under Soviet control from 1944 to 1948. Maria had two more children during this time: Peter’s half-sister and half-brother. Afterward, the family moved to Griffen, Maria’s hometown. Peter later described his stepfather as becoming increasingly violent due to alcoholism.

In 1954, Handke was sent to a Catholic boys’ boarding school called Marianum at Tanzenberg Castle in Sankt Veit an der Glan. There, he wrote his first article for the school newspaper, Fackel. In 1959, he moved to Klagenfurt, where he attended high school, and he began studying law at the University of Graz in 1961.

Handke’s mother took her own life in 1971, an event that inspired his novel Wunschloses Unglück (A Sorrow Beyond Dreams).

After leaving Graz, Handke lived in Düsseldorf, Berlin, Kronberg, Paris, the United States (1978–1979), and Salzburg (1979–1988). Since 1990, he has lived in Chaville, near Paris. He is the subject of a documentary film titled Peter Handke: In the Woods, Might Be Late (2016), directed by Corinna Belz. Since 2012, Handke has been a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He is also a member of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

In November 2019, Austrian officials investigated reports that Handke had obtained a Yugoslav passport and possibly Yugoslav nationality during the 1990s, which could have caused him to lose his Austrian citizenship. The investigation ended in 2021.

While studying, Handke became a writer and joined the Grazer Gruppe, a group of young writers in Graz. The group published a literary magazine called manuskripte, which featured Handke’s early works. Members of the group included Wolfgang Bauer and Barbara Frischmuth.

Handke left his studies in 1965 after a German publisher, Suhrkamp Verlag, accepted his novel Die Hornissen (The Hornets) for publication. He gained international recognition after appearing at a meeting of avant-garde artists in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1966. That same year, his play Publikumsbeschimpfung (Offending the Audience) premiered in Frankfurt, directed by Claus Peymann. In 1969, Handke helped start a publishing house called Verlag der Autoren, which belonged to the authors. He also co-founded the Grazer Autorenversammlung in 1973 and was a member until 1977.

Handke’s first play, Publikumsbeschimpfung (Offending the Audience), which premiered in Frankfurt in 1966, made him well known. It was one of several experimental plays he wrote without a traditional plot. In his second play, Kaspar, he told the story of Kaspar Hauser as an allegory about the pressures of conforming to society.

Handke worked with director Wim Wenders on a film version of Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter. He also wrote the script for Falsche Bewegung (The Wrong Move) and co-wrote the screenplay for Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire), including the poem at the film’s opening and Les Beaux Jours d'Aranjuez (The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez). He directed films based on his novels, such as The Left-Handed Woman (1978) and The Absence. The Left-Handed Woman was nominated for the Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1978 and won the Gold Award for German Arthouse Cinema in 1980. Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide described the film as showing a woman who demands her husband leave, and he complies. “Time passes… and the audience falls asleep.” Handke also won the 1975 German Film Award in Gold for his screenplay for Falsche Bewegung (The Wrong Move). Since 1975, Handke has served on the jury for the European literary award Petrarca-Preis.

In 2019, Handke was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his influential work, which used clever language to explore the edges and unique aspects of human experience.

Literary reception

In 1977, Stanley Kauffmann wrote in a review of A Moment of True Feeling that Peter Handke "is one of the most important new writers on the international scene since Samuel Beckett." John Updike also reviewed the same book in The New Yorker and was just as impressed, saying that Handke writes with "a clear and sharp way of describing feelings." He added that Handke writes from a place that goes beyond just understanding feelings, where emotions feel as strong and clear as pebbles studied by scientists. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung called Handke "a favorite among West German critics." Hugo Hamilton noted that since Handke began writing, he has "tested, inspired, and surprised audiences." Joshua Cohen said that Handke "uses one of the greatest styles of writing in the German language after World War II, a style that is deep, fast-moving, and goes against the usual flow." Gabriel Josipovici, even though he has some concerns about some of Handke's more recent books, still considers him one of the most important German-language writers after the war. W. G. Sebald was influenced by Handke's detailed writing. In an essay about Repetition, he wrote that the book left him with "a great and lasting impression." He praised Handke for showing "how the connection between hard work and imaginative creativity has been beautifully written." Karl Ove Knausgård called A Sorrow Beyond Dreams "one of the most important books written in German in our time." He also praised the book and its author in his own work, My Struggle.

Controversies

In 1996, Peter Handke’s book Eine winterliche Reise zu den Flüssen Donau, Save, Morawa und Drina oder Gerechtigkeit für Serbien (published in English as A Journey to the Rivers: Justice for Serbia) caused controversy. Handke described Serbia as a victim of the Yugoslav Wars. He also criticized Western media for not accurately showing the causes and effects of the war.

Sebastian Hammelehle said Handke’s views on the Yugoslav Wars were likely idealized but reflected the perspective of a writer, not a journalist. Scott Abbott, an American translator who traveled with Handke in Yugoslavia, noted that Handke saw Yugoslavia as a multicultural state that lacked the national conflicts he observed in Germany and Austria. Abbott also said Handke believed the country’s collapse ended a hopeful vision. Joshua Cohen wrote that Handke’s portrayal of Yugoslavia was not a real country but a symbol of himself, literature, or the "European Novel." Volker Hage described The Moravian Night as "extremely cosmopolitan" and connected to the present, while also calling it a summary of Handke’s life as a writer. Tanjil Rashid noted that Handke’s works show the harm of ordinary, everyday evil.

In 1999, after Handke’s play Voyage by Dugout was performed, other writers criticized him. Susan Sontag said he was "finished," Salman Rushdie called him a candidate for "International Moron of the Year," and Slavoj Žižek called his praise for Serbs "cynicism." In 2014, when Handke won the International Ibsen Award, Norwegian author Øyvind Berg asked the jury to resign.

Handke disagreed with some interpretations of his work, saying the English press misunderstood him. He described the Srebrenica massacre as an "infernal vengeance" and a "shame" for Bosnian Serbs. He also criticized media for using overused words like "the butcher of Belgrade."

In 2006, Handke’s support for Slobodan Milošević, a former Yugoslav president on trial for war crimes, caused controversy. Marcel Bozonnet, administrator of the Comédie-Française theater, removed Handke’s play from its 2007 schedule. French Minister of Culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres criticized this decision by inviting Handke to the ministry. A petition against censorship was signed by writers like Emir Kusturica and Elfriede Jelinek. Handke was later chosen for the Heinrich Heine Prize but refused it before it was revoked.

In 2013, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić thanked Handke, saying some people still remember those who suffered for Christianity. Handke responded, "I was not anyone's victim, the Serbian people is victim," during a ceremony where he received Serbia’s Gold Medal of Merit.

In 2019, The Intercept published articles by Peter Maass criticizing Handke’s Nobel Prize in Literature. Maass accused Handke of supporting "white nationalism" and claimed some Nobel jurors held "conspiracy theories" about American involvement in Yugoslavia. Handke refused to answer questions about the Srebrenica massacre, calling them "empty and ignorant." He received threatening messages and criticism. Germany’s Eugen Ruge and over 120 authors, scholars, and artists expressed concern about the unfairness of the criticism.

In February 2020, Handke was honored with the Order of Karađorđe’s Star for "special merits in representing Serbia and its citizens." Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić presented the award during Serbia’s Statehood Day.

Awards

• 1973: Georg Büchner Prize
• 1987: Vilenica International Literary Prize
• 2000: Brothers Karić Award [sr]
• 2002: America Award
• 2002: Honorary Doctor, University of Klagenfurt
• 2003: Honorary Doctor, University of Salzburg
• 2008: Thomas-Mann-Preis
• 2009: Franz Kafka Prize
• 2012: Mülheimer Dramatikerpreis
• 2014: International Ibsen Award
• 2018: Nestroy Theatre Prize for Lifetime Achievement
• 2019: Nobel Prize in Literature
• 2020: Order of Karađorđe's Star
• 2021: Order of the Republika Srpska
• 2024: Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Sash for Services to the Republic of Austria

Works

Peter Handke has written many types of works, including novels, plays, screenplays, essays, and poems. Many of these works were published by Suhrkamp. Some of his works have been translated into English. The German National Library holds many of his works, including:

• 1966 Die Hornissen (The Hornets), novel
• 1970 Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter (The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick), novel and screenplay for the film The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty (1972)
• 1972 Der kurze Brief zum langen Abschied (Short Letter, Long Farewell), novel
• 1972 Wunschloses Unglück (A Sorrow Beyond Dreams: A Life Story), memoir
• 1975 Die Stunde der wahren Empfindung (A Moment of True Feeling), novel
• 1976 Die linkshändige Frau (The Left-Handed Woman), novel
• 1979 Langsame Heimkehr (Slow Homecoming), the beginning of a series of four stories, including Die Lehre der Sainte-Victoire (1980), Über die Dörfer und Kindergeschichte (1981)
• 1983 Der Chinese des Schmerzes (Across), story
• 1986 Die Wiederholung (Repetition), novel
• 1987 Nachmittag eines Schriftstellers (The Afternoon of a Writer), essay
• 1987 Die Abswesenhait (The Absence), play
• 1994 Mein Jahr in der Niemandsbucht. Ein Märchen aus den neuen Zeiten (My Year in the No-Man's-Bay), novel
• 1997 In einer dunklen Nacht ging ich aus meinem stillen Haus (On a Dark Night I Left My Silent House), novel
• 2002 Der Bildverlust oder Durch die Sierra de Gredos (Crossing the Sierra de Gredos), novel
• 2004 Don Juan (erzählt von ihm selbst) (Don Juan: His Own Version), novel
• 2008 Die morawische Nacht (The Moravian Night), novel
• 2009 Bis dass der Tag euch scheidet oder Eine Frage des Lichts (Till Day You Do Part or A Question of Light), play
• 2010 Immer noch Sturm (Storm Still), novel and play
• 2011 Der Große Fall (The Great Fall), novel
• 2017 Die Obstdiebin oder Einfache Fahrt ins Landesinnere (The Fruit Thief or One-Way Journey into the Interior), novel
• 2020 Das zweite Schwert (The Second Sword), novel
• 2021 Mein Tag im anderen Land (My Day in the Other Land), novel
• 2023 Die Ballade des letzten Gastes (The Ballad of the Last Guest), novel

• 1966 Publikumsbeschimpfung und andere Sprechstücke (Offending the Audience and Other Spoken Plays), play; English version: Offending the Audience and Self-accusation
• 1967 Kaspar, play; English version: Kaspar and Other Plays
• 1973 Die Unvernünftigen sterben aus (The Unreasonable Die Out), play
• 1990 Das Wintermärchen, German translation of William Shakespeare's work by Peter Handke; first performed at Schaubühne Berlin (1990)
• 1992 Die Stunde, da wir nichts voneinander wußten (The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other), play
• 2010 Immer noch Sturm (Storm Still), play about the Slovenian uprising against Hitler in 1945; first performed at Salzburg Festival (2011)
• 2018 Peter Handke Bibliothek (Peter Handke Library): I. Prose, Poetry, Plays (Volumes 1–9); II. Essays (Volumes 10–11); III. Diaries (Volumes 13–14)
• 2021 The Fruit Thief, or, One-Way Journey into the Interior (translated by Krishna Winston), published by New York; ISBN 978-0-374-90650-4

• 1969 Die Innenwelt der Aussenwelt der Innerwelt (The Innerworld of the Outerworld of the Innerworld), essay
• 1974 Als das Wünschen noch geholfen hat (Nonsense and Happiness), essay

• 1971 Chronik der laufenden Ereignisse (Chronicle of Current Events), essay
• 1977 Die linkshändige Frau (The Left-Handed Woman), based on his 1976 novel
• 1985 Das Mal des Todes (The Malady of Death), based on Marguerite Duras's 1982 novella

• 1992 L'Absence (The Absence), play

• 1969 3 amerikanische LP's (3 American LPs), film by Wim Wenders
• 1972 Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter (The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick), film by Wim Wenders
• 1975 Falsche Bewegung (Wrong Move), film by Wim Wenders
• 1987 Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire), film by Wim Wenders