Two plays from the 2019 Nobel laureate for literature explore the life-affirming qualities of language
In these two plays, here translated into English for the first time, the renowned Austrian writer Peter Handke inquires into the boundaries and life-affirming qualities of language. At a time when language no longer seems to serve the purposes of a genuine human community, Handke asks, is such a community possible?
In Voyage to the Sonorous Land, or The Art of Asking, a cockeyed optimist and a spoilsport lead a group of characters to the hinterland of their imaginations, where they search not for the right answers but for the right questions. The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other takes place in a city square where more than 400 characters pass by one another without speaking a single word. Handke here journeys to the brink of speech: Who is that person passing by? Is she on her way, or is she coming back? Is her story ahead of her, or is it behind? In the silence of the square, Handke returns the gift of speech, the magic of telling a story, to the spectator.
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From the Back Cover:
This book presents two plays, both of which are translated into English for the first time. In Voyage to the Sonorous Land, or The Art of Asking, a cockeyed optimist and a spoilsport lead a group of characters to the hinterland of their imaginations, where they search not for the right answers but for the questions. The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other takes place in a city square where more than four hundred characters pass by one another without speaking a single word.
About the Author:
Peter Handke is the recipient of the 2019 Nobel Prize for Literature. His widely acclaimed plays have been translated into every major language and performed around the world. Handke is also the author of screenplays (Wings of Desire) and prose works (including the novel, The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, and the memoir, A Sorrow Beyond Dreams). Gitta Honegger is chair of the Department of Drama and producing artistic director of the Hartke Theater at the Catholic University of America.
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- PublisherYale University Press
- Publication date1996
- ISBN 10 0300062745
- ISBN 13 9780300062748
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages144
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