Aleph (Jan 2024)
Das Heterotopie-Konzept in Peter Handkes Kriminalroman Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter. 1970
Abstract
The French philosopher and psychologist Michel Foucault first introduced the concept of heterotopia in the foreword to Les mots et les choses in 1966. Since then, there has been a marked focus on the concept of heterotopia in literary studies. Today’s academic disciplines can even be described as a topographical turn. The concept of heterotopia is orientated towards ideas of space and spatiality. Postmodernist texts are characterized by this new turn in literature. They are therefore inseparable from Foucault’s concept of heterotopia. Today, the literary text is even understood as a heterotopic and topographical place. Many authors dedicate themselves to this concept. A good example of this is the Austrian author Peter Handke. In his book The goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, published in 1972, he thermalizes the concept of heterotopia. His crime novel is characterized by the complexity of the discourse. Handke’s heterotopias are a network of spaces and places that intersect in juxtaposition and divergence. Handke’s aesthetics is an aesthetics of a topographical nature, which will be analyzed in this essay.
