The senses of slovenia

Peter Handke, Stanley Cavell, and the environmental ethics of repetition

Bernhard Malkmus

pp. 87-108

in: Caroline Schaumann (ed), German ecocriticism in the anthropocene, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

Abstract

This analysis of the art of memory in Peter Handke's Die Wiederholung argues that his notion of memory is rooted in Kierkegaard's (future-oriented) concept of repetition rather than the Greek (past-oriented) concept of recollection. Drawing on Stanley Cavell's reading of Thoreau, this chapter explores the environmental ramifications of such a dramaturgy of memory. It investigates the anthropological dialectics of primary and secondary nature, the relation between spatial mapping and language development, and the paradox of gaining identity through accepting otherness. Close readings of narrative strategies offer new insights into the ways in which Handke combines his language philosophy with an ethics of space, movement, and createdness. His poetics of world-forming anticipates concerns that are discussed in the Anthropocene debate today in powerful ways.

Cited authors

Kierkegaard Søren

Handke Peter

Cavell Stanley