Narrative Worlds/Image Orders: On the Introduction to the Text

Abstract

Narration and images have been thematic in Handke’s work from the beginning, but since the 1980s they have taken on a new weight in his oeuvre. The question of the image has moved to the centre of an increasingly autoreflexive writing since Die Lehre der Sainte-Victoire (The Lesson of Mount Sainte-Victoire), and that of narrative since Der Chinese des Schmerzes (Across). At least since the so-called “Tetralogie” (Tetralogy), the texts Langsame Heimkehr (Slow Homecoming), Die Lehre der Sainte-Victoire, Kindergeschichte (Children’s Story) and Über die Dörfer (Walk about the Villages), it can be observed that the mere narration of the real recedes to the extent that a separate reality of narration begins to establish itself. This reality creates images and texts that break away from the paradigm of representation. Narrative worlds or narrative realities emerge that can be recognized as elements of a metatext that is always about narrative itself. This is also possible because the sequence of Handke’s texts does not aim for a constant innovation of themes, writing strategies and images, but follows the principle of a creative schematization that uses a limited stock of narrative set pieces to constantly produce new stories and narrative situations.