Place, autonomy and the individual: short letter, long farewell, and a sorrow beyond dreams.

Halsall, Robert

Abstract

The two novels by Peter Handke which were published in Germany in 1972, Der kurze Brief zum langen Abschied (Short Letter, Long Farewell, 1977) and Wunschloses Unglück (A Sorrow Beyond Dreams, 1976), illustrate the importance of place in Handke’s work from two very different perspectives: the former ends in an exaltation of America as the realization of the utopian dreams of its European narrator, the latter in a dystopian condemnation of the negative influence of his Austrian homeland on the life of the narrator’s mother and its contribution to the events leading to her suicide.

Citation

HALSALL, R. 2005. Place, autonomy and the individual: short letter, long farewell, and a sorrow beyond dreams. In Coury, D.N and Pilipp, F. (eds.) The Works of Peter Handke. Riverside, CA: Ariadne Press. pages 46-79.

• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2005
• Deposit Date: Jan 21, 2009
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 21, 2009
• Publisher: Ariadne Press
• Pages: 46-79
• Book Title: Place, autonomy and the individual: short letter, long farewell, and a sorrow beyond dreams
• ISBN: 9781572411395
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/296