Abstract

The Austrian writer Peter Handke, who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 2005, which was finally awarded to Elfriede Jelinek, was born in the bilingual village of Griffen/Grebing in Carinthia near the border with Slovenia and Italy. In my talk I am going to explore Handke’s war novels in the context of his personal involvement with Serbian culture and politics. His controversial political engagement for the Serbs, which casts a sharp shadow over his literary reputation, can be tracked to Handke’s origins.