SOURCE: Metcalf, Eva-Maria. “Challenging the Arrogance of Power.” Modern Fiction Studies 36, no. 3 (autumn 1990): 369-79.

In the following essay, Metcalf discusses Handke's usage of mythology and language to establish a quasi-fairy tale-like structure in Das Spiel vom Fragen.

I

In 1967 Peter Handke built himself an ivory tower, and he has resided in it ever since. The theories about language and writing that he exposed in his essay “Ich bin ein Bewohner des Elfenbeinturms” have continued to serve as his guiding principles throughout his more than twenty years of authorship. During the last decade, Handke has drifted further and further in the direction of mysticism, which has become the ultimate consequence of his rejection of current nonliterary discourse.

Based on Herbert Gamper's long interview with Handke, Aber ich lebe nur von den Zwischenräumen, and Handke's two most recent works, Das Spiel vom Fragen: oder die Reise zum sonoren Land...