Peter Handke, Die morawische Nacht [The Moravian Night]

Scott Abbott (Rheinisch-Westfalische TH)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.2: German-language Writing and Culture: Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, 800-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 2008

Places

Germany (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Story

Resources

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Evoking

The Arabian Nights

in his title and again in his first sentence (“Every country has its Samarkand and its Numancia”), Peter Handke's narrator links this story to legendary tales told by characters who must keep telling stories to escape danger. There is no plague here, as in Boccaccio's

Decameron

, but the houseboat moored on the Morava River is compared to Numancia, the last place of refuge for Spanish Celts from the Roman Empire; and on this night “between the wars”, the narrator joins others on a houseboat for a night of storytelling by the boot's owner, an ex-author back from a lengthy journey through Europe. In the telling of stories through the night and in the recounting of stories about the stories, in corrections and additions to the stories by other witnesses, in…

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1640 words

Citation: Abbott, Scott. "Die morawische Nacht". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 December 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=24866, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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