SOURCE: “Peter Handke: From Alienation to Orientation,” in Modern Austrian Literature, Vol. 20, No. 1, 1987, pp. 53-71.

In the following essay, DeMeritt examines the transition from alienation and fear to harmony and happiness in Handke's literary works, drawing attention to such thematic developments in Die Stunde der wahren Empfindung and Die Lehre der Sainte-Victoire.

The extreme subjectivity which characterizes the works of Peter Handke in the late sixties and mid-seventies is based upon an experience of alienation. Objective predetermined systems and explanations are no longer valid, and the subject is propelled into an inner world of question and doubt. The fear caused by alienation permeates Handke's earlier works, a disturbing, uneasy atmosphere of disquiet and displacement. More and more, however, this tone of subjective anxiety gives way to a quiet objectivity. Handke's more recent works are distinguished by still-lifes from nature, mythical dimensions, calmness reflected in both man and nature...