Peter Handke Research Platform

The project documents and describes the most important sources on the genesis of Peter Handke`s literary works and presents its results on an electronic platform as part of the website of the Austrian National Library. Its point of departure is the extensive collection of materials which Handke has already given to the Literary Archives at the Austrian National Library in Vienna as a pre-mortem bequest. This is the largest Handke collection in the world, and provides detailed documentation of his literary endeavours including working notes, numerous draft versions, typoscripts, manuscripts and accompanying materials (photographs of locations that appear in the works, annotated hiking maps, etc). Original documents and documentary materials on the author`s entire oeuvre - often the cause of controversial debates - are also held at the German Literature Archive in Marbach as well as in numerous other public and private collections. All the sources relevant to the genesis of Handke`s works will be studied, put in relation to one another, and presented in an appropriate form (in data tables, work and source histories and with the use of facsimiles). In this way, a new, source-based foundation will be laid for further and more profound readings of one of Austria`s most significant living authors - both for Handke specialists, who over recent years have increasingly turned to questions of text genesis, but also for an interested general public. The research platform aims to be an open project, supervised by an international scientific board, and offering possibilities for the publication and discussion of individual studies on the genesis of Handke`s works.

The project website Handkeonline provides researchers and the interested general public, wherever they may be, with quick, easy access to source materials on the Austrian author Peter Handke. Handke has been considered one of the most important modern writers worldwide since 1960. He has been the recipient of many awards for his wide-ranging oeuvre of over 80 works in all genres and more than 30 translations, from American English, Slovenian, Ancient Greek and French. In 2010, the author made a pre-mortem bequest of extensive materials to the Literary Archives at the Austrian National Library in Vienna and the German Literature Archive in Marbach; other smaller holdings are however spread across Europe in various public and private collections, making it difficult for researchers to access them and to assess their significance to the genesis of Handkes works. Handkeonline offers insights into the authors distinctive way of working, as documented by his notebooks, research materials (annotated books, photographs, hiking maps with routes marked in, etc.) and draft versions of his works (typescripts, pencil manuscripts and galley proofs). Before the materials were brought together in this virtual location, they were examined closely, set in relation to a specific work, and put into chronological order within the collection of materials pertaining to that work, according to when they were produced or written. Every single item or document is recorded in tabular form following clearly defined categories, described in a short text and (in the cases where this is legally possible) illustrated by use of facsimile examples. Introductory texts on the context of each works genesis and the sources available explain the often complex interrelations between materials as well as the composition process right up publication; in the case of plays and films, the source material is complemented by additional information on premieres and the filming process. With the authors consent, facsimiles of some selected sources are also available in their entirety. This first-ever documentation of Handke materials lays the foundations for source-based Handke research and for the future publication of a historical critical edition of his works. Alongside the modules Notizbücher von 1971 bis 1990 (Notebooks 1971-1990), Werke & Materialien (Works and Materials) and Gesamtfaksimiles (Facsimiles of sources in their entirety), users are offered a thematic approach to Handkes works in Wege durchs Material (Paths through the sources), an Open Access platform Forschungsbeiträge (research papers) as well as an extensive bibliography. Handkeonline is thus able to set new standards in the effort to combine the aims of the latest developments in Digital Humanities in the collection and interlinking of sources with the requirements of classical, interpretative literary studies and academic editing practices.