Handke, Peter (1942– )

Austrian novelist and dramatist. His first play, Publikumsbeschimpfung/Insulting the Audience (1966), was an example of ‘anti-theatre writing’, in which four actors tell the audience that they will not see a play and end by insulting them. His novels include Die Hornissen/The Hornets (1966), Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter/The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1970), Der kurze Brief zum langen Abschied/The Short Letter at the Long Parting (1972), and In einer dunklen Nacht ging ich aus meinem stillen Haus/On a Dark Night I Left My Silent House (1999).

He wrote and directed the films Linkshandige Frau/The Left-handed Woman (1977) and Absence (1995), and wrote the screenplay for Wim Wenders' Stadt der Engel/City of Angels (Wings of Desire) (1998).

Handke followed his first play with a number of ‘speaking pieces’ in which slogans and catchphrases, carefully orchestrated, are hurled between two groups of actors. Kaspar (1968) dealt again with language and its limits, although in 1969 he caused astonishment by writing a play without words, Das Mundel will Vormund sein/My Foot, My Tutor. He also produced a collection of prose poems in 1969, before returning to more traditional theatrical forms with the highly entertaining Der Ritt über den Bodensee/Ride Across Lake Constance (1971).