Handke was awarded the Ibsen Prize for his plays, not for supporting Serbia. The question is, can we judge an artist's works independent from his actions and opinions?
We appreciate the novels by Knut Hamsun in spite of his pro-nazi attitude during the war. He met both Hitler and Goebbels in person. Hamsun was convicted for act of treason after the war, but was put in a hospital rather than jail due to his high age.
We enjoy the writing of Jean Genet (e.g. The Thief's Journal), even though he spent years in jail, for theft, robbery and gay prostitution. Jean Paul Sartre recognized Genet's talent as a writer, and helped him avoid a life-time sentence.
We can be entertained by Marquis de Sade's novels even though the sexual abuse he describes (e.g. Justine; The Misfortunes of Virtue) is horrifying.
I think I'm gonna order a couple of books by Peter Handke from Amazon, to make up my own mind regarding his work as an artist. I usually like books by people with twisted minds.
As far as I know, Peter Handke has done nothing illegal. He has just stated opinions that the majority of people don't like, just like Ibsen's Dr. Stockmann did ... >:)
(Picture of Peter Handke borrowed from Wikipedia)
This is a really hard one for me. Intellectually, I think we should separate the artist's life from his work. But emotionally, I can't. The politics aren't what hold me up - but the personal life. I try not to read Wikipedia on favorite artists anymore. I read about Bing Crosby's abuse of his kids, and I can't watch him in movies or appreciate his singing anymore, my stomach just twists. I've come to the conclusion, it's better if I don't know!
ReplyDeleteYes, it's a hard one. I thin I agree with your view. Maybe it's also easier for us to separate the artist works from his/her views and actions when the artist is passed away long time ago. Then we tend to remember only the positive things
ReplyDeleteYes, that's very true because the negative part of it belongs to the past. If it is a contemporary author, artist or scientist, I think only professionals from the same field can really separate the two, since they can appreciate the work much more than the rest of us. The best scientist can be a bad teacher and a complete jerk in the private life. Still, if you work with his theories, you will appreciate them...
DeleteI've never heard of Peter Handke. I do think we shouldn't judge a persons books.writing based off their life. We could miss out on a lot of great books if we did. :)
ReplyDeleteHandke is a quite famous contemporary playwright, but probably more famous in Europe than in America.
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