Kaspar and Other Plays

by Peter Handke

This play is the story of an autistic adolescent who finds himself at a complete existential loss on the stage, with but a single sentence to call his own. Drilled by prompters who use terrifyingly funny logical and alogical language-sequences, Kaspar learns to speak "normally" and eventually becomes creative "doing his own thing" with words; for this he is destroyed.

In Offending the Audience and Self-Accusation, one-character "speak-ins," Handke further explores the relationship between public performance and personal identity, forcing us to reconsider our sense of who we are and what we know.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Fiction, Theatre, German Literature, 20th Century, Own

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Peter Handke (* 6. Dezember 1942 in Griffen, Kärnten) ist ein österreichischer Schriftsteller und Übersetzer.

Peter Handke is an Avant-garde Austrian novelist and playwright. His body of work has been awarded numerous literary prizes, including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2019. He has also collaborated with German director Wim Wenders, writing the script for The Wrong Move and co-writing the screenplay for Wings of Desire.

Reviews

[Matthieu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Speech torture.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees · Rating 3 out of 5]

Handke's is a name that I had heard of but knew next to nothing about when I picked up this short book of plays at some library sale or another. After finishing, I did some cursory research on his career (i.e. looked him up on Wikipedia), and was surprised at all the controversy surrounding him now. None of that has much to do with this earlier work, I suppose, done in the mid 60s--but it seems that the controversy has almost completely obscured his literary work. There was nothing on the Wikipedia page about these three plays at all.

And that might also be because of their relative merit in the overall body of his work--since these three early plays (Offending the Audience, Self-Accusation, and Kaspar), he's had a long career, and these might be considered an acquired taste now, especially the last. They are plays in the sense that they are performed in a theatrical setting, but Handke is intent on obliterating all dramatic conventions as a kind of meta-commentary to go along with the text of the play itself. It seems very sixty-ish to me--a kind of shout at the audience to wake-up, that these plays are about no longer acting as if conventions are truth, about not accepting conventions as necessary, about getting down to the Real.

I like this paragraph from the book's back matter, in the introduction to Handke and Kaspar:

"As completely unrealistic as Kaspar is, the plays substance--the programming of a theater creature by entirely theatrical means, and his eventual discovery of the artificiality of who he is and what he has been taught--could hardly be a more pertinent metaphor for our time, particularly for the young."

Far out, man. That last line is really something--I keep seeing the Freedom School from Billy Jack in my mind when I read that.

I don't know a lot about theater--My suspicion is that this kind of experimental theater had its day and dramatists are on to other subjects now. Maybe not--there's a YouTube video of an adaptation of Offending the Audience that looks fairly recent. I haven't watched it all, but it seems to conform to the general idea of Handke's piece.

Anyway--about the plays themselves: I enjoyed the first two, which are actually labeled as 'Speak-ins', where the actors directly address the audience (though I thought Offending the Audience made its point fairly quickly and then went on and on about it). Kaspar did not make a lot of sense to me, even with the gloss of that paragraph I quoted above. Sometimes I thought I caught a glimpse of what Handke was trying to say, but I was never sure--perhaps something along the lines of how the social goal is to bring us out of ignorance into conformity, but not to proceed past that point. Just a guess.

I've been trying to read a lot more drama lately--Pirandello, Ionesco, Stoppard--and some of it seems effective and some not. I haven't read enough to make any conclusive judgments, but Handke was interesting enough (if dated, here) to read more of his when I come across it.

[Jacob Hurley · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are three plays from 1966/67 by a very young Handke in his early twenties, and were apparently very successful among the 'German avant-garde theatre' of the time (such a thing existed, apparently). The first two are the typical eye-rolling fare, lengthy monologues for obscured voices rambling about the paradoxical nature of theatre (whether or not it is really representational) and minutiae of the self, all filled with Wittgensteinianisms. With the third play, Kaspar, he manages to make something resembling a drama, however, in a tale about a man who at first cannot move or speak, and slowly learns to be a normal person via the instruction of disembodied voices over a speaker. It's a variation on the Homunculus theme from Goethe's Faust, the question of the essence and anatomy of the human being, here by Handke's analysis centered around linguistic adages and platitudes, colored by their indeterminate relationship to reality and the capacity for human expression in the mysterious spaces between. I think that, more than simply ellaborating more deeply on the postmodern philosophy, this play actually produces a drama, making use of the stage along with humor, contrasts of acting (in an ideal performance), etc etc, that ties the classic German homonculus with something of the Expressionist spirit and produces what is, to me, a coherent drama. It gives me something of a newfound respect for Handke, whom I knew mostly from his novellas from the 70s (which share a similar inundation with philosophy, but keep it at a distance and focus instead on producing interesting prose) and whom everyone knows for his Nobel Prize and his opinions on Serbia ...

[Ba · Rating 5 out of 5]

So brilliant. hard to believe Handke was 25 when Kaspar was published - the conception and execution are remarkable

[Gregory Duke]

Fearsome, funny, fascinating
Fecund, fuming, foreboding
Frenetic
Formless, formidable
Frustrating, fierce, focused
Flippant
Fearless.

[Yehia aboLnaga · Rating 5 out of 5]

"اننى أود أن أصبح مثلما كان إنسان آخر ذات مرة "
كاسبار
كنت من المحظوظين اللى تناولوا ادب بيتر هاندكه بالعمل والدراسة .. قدمت له مونودراما كاسبار كممثل والتى تتناول الحياة الإنسانية لصبي بعقل طفل وليد يكتشف اللغة ويحاول التواصل ببراءة مع العالم من حوله ودور هذا العالم فى تحويل مساره وتغيير افكاره و جعله نسخة مكررة منهم .. هل يستجيب كاسبار ؟ هل يتخلى عن طلبه ورغبته فى أن يكون انسان كما هو يرغب فى التواصل والقبول والشوفان والتقدير بذاته و لذاته ؟ ام يتحول الى نموذج وفكرة مكررة يزرعها فيه الملقنين ؟
اللغة و الأفكار و دلالتها واهميتها فى تكوين الوعى لدى الإنسان اعتقد انها اهم ما تطرحه المسرحية .
كباحث تناولت الكثير من أدب بيتر هاندكه فى مشروع تخرجى من المعهد العالي للفنون المسرحية تحت عنوان :
"الاغتراب فى مسرح النصف الثاني من القرن العشرين"
اديب انسانى و مثقف لم ينل حظه من الشهرة والتقدير والترجمة لأعماله حتى وقت قريب إلى أن نصفه العالم وفاز بجائزة نوبل للأدب عام 2020 .

[Stian Larsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel shamed. Raped, in a good way, dirty, offended, facefucked with words, sentences and words, ramming nonsense down my throat, exhausting body, mind, eyes, mind, through constant repetition making words meaningless and meaningfull at the same time. Everything is nonsense and at the same time nothing.
Some say Handkes plays are like Becketts but without the humour. I say they are darker, yes, actually. Here are no hope, but that might not even be important to Handke. This is a dissertation of words and voice through the instrument of theatre. I cant really say anything else than read it, watch it, enjoy it, hate it.

[Vehka Kurjenmiekka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am deeply irritated by the fact that this collection is brilliant and smart and a constant delight, although Handke himself seems to hold very problematic and unethical political views. I would give five stars for the text alone, but I'll take one off because of the author.

[Damien Leri · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Kaspar" was too experimental for my mood. But I really like "Self accusation"

[Jaime · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Aprendes a detenerte con la frase, y con la frase aprendes que te detienes. Y con la frase aprendes a oír. Y con la frase aprendes que oyes. Y con la frase aprendes a dividir el tiempo en el tiempo anterior y posterior a decir la frase, y aprendes con la frase que divides el tiempo. Como aprendes con la frase que estabas en otra parte al decir por ultima vez la frase. Como aprendes ahora, con tu frase, que estas en otra parte. Y con la frase aprendes a hablar. Y con la frase aprendes que hablas. Y con la frase aprendes que dices una frase. Y con la frase aprendes a decir otra frase, al igual que aprendes que existen otras frases. Igual que aprendes otras frases. Y aprendes a aprender. Y con la frase aprendes que existe el orden. Y aprendes a aprender el orden."

[Peter Sprengelmeyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure what I think about theater that does not conform to the standard idioms. I would love to see this preformed, as I also do not know what one loses in reading vs seeing it acted out. But it is funny, irreverent, and poignant. I need to read more Handke and see where his thinking goes, as I know that his politics moved off kilter as well.

[Sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of dancing about architecture. Some cool ideas, lots of poor execution. Did have some wow moments, though. Will read his other stuff eventually. Would rather watch a ten-hour Sharits flick that sit in on a performance, though.

[scrapespaghetti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kasper is my absolute favorite.
Offending the Audience and Self-Accusation is fine, but I don't love it.

[Cc · Rating 5 out of 5]

So brilliant. hard to believe Handke was 25 when Kaspar was published - the conception and execution are remarkable

[hence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leave something to the imagination, but not too much...

[Nathan Kramer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ontzettend uniek, maar ook ontzettend irritant.

Handke pulkt zo’n beetje elke laag van de werkelijkheid van zijn stukken af, tot het meest abstracte, meest basale van de menselijke communicatie en/of het theater overblijft. Dat heeft wel tot gevolg dat er volledig plotloze stukken ontstaan, zoals bij ‘Offending the Audience’, of een echolalie die men zou verwachten van zwakzinnigen, zoals bij ‘Kaspar’.

Handke heeft de kunst van de menselijke communicatie heel goed onder de knie dus, maar er uiting aan brengen gebeurt op een dusdanige manier dat je er vaak strontziek van wordt.

[InternetRex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really only read Offending the Audience

[Kimley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible examination of language, sounds and the way we communicate. Having only read Kaspar, I would love to actaully see it performed!