SOURCE: “Ding-Bild-Schrift: Peter Handke's Slow Homecoming to a ‘Chinese’ Austria,” in Modern Fiction Studies, Vol. 36, No. 3, Autumn, 1990, pp. 381-94.

In the following essay, Caviola examines the development and significance of Handke's increasingly sober and subjective tone in Langsame Heimkehr and Der Chinese des Schmerzes. Caviola argues that “Handke's solemn tone cannot be taken at face value but has to be perceived in the context of an aesthetic that is allegorically inscribed in the text.”

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“Niemand, fast niemand, kann oder mag Handke noch weiter auf dem Wege folgen, den dieser nun schon seit mehreren Büchern eingeschlagen hat.” This remark by Jürgen Manthey (383) reflects a general trend in the reception of Peter Handke's latest works. Starting with Langsame Heimkehr (1979), Handke's writing has acquired a new tone that, although adumbrated by his preceding works, either surprised or affronted many of his previous readers. Invariably, negative critical response has...