movement in Peter Handke´s novel ”Der Bildverlust”

http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:431139/FULLTEXT01.pdf

This study explores the motif of movement in Peter Handke´s novel ”Der Bildverlust” (2002). The novel is about an ”adventuress”, who travels through a desert in order to get to a person called ”the author”, who is to write down her story. The study shows that the physical movement while travelling through the desert is interconnected with a corresponding physical movement even on the level of perception and on the level of language. For example, both reading and gazing describe a pendular physical movement betweeen the object and the perceiving subject. On the one hand, this complex net of physical movement causes a perpetual being on the move on all these different levels. On the other hand, it makes more intensive perception possible. Thus, the study recurs to the theory of phenomenology and here especially the phenomenology of perception by Paul Ricoeur. Ricoeur´s theory helps illuminate the relationship between perception and language and chisels out the creative function of perception and language. Also in the ”Bildverlust” the complex movement on the different levels is orientated to the creative aspect of both perception and language. Not only is ”the author” the destination of the journey, but also all movements are permeated with putting into words in shorthand the perceived and the experienced and finally the act of narrating and of being narrated. Increasingly, even rhythm permeates the movements. This results in a transcending experience of the subject, embedded in physical movement, perception and the act of formulating and narration.....

http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:431139/FULLTEXT01.pdf