Peter Handke wins 2014 International Ibsen Award

Peter Handke in younger days

"Tense, unnerved, and close to madness before writing—and when I read what I’ve written it looks so calm." 

-- Peter Handke, "The Weight of the World"

Controversial author Peter Handke has been awarded the International Ibsen Award, which goes to individuals or institutions that have made a significant contribution to the development of theatre as an art form. 

The award was established by the Norwegian government in 2007 and and is awarded every second year on the birthday of celebrated playwright Henrik Ibsen, born in 1828 in Skien, Norway.

Previous recipients have been Peter Brook, Ariane Mnouchkine, Jon Fosse and Heiner Goebbels. The winner receives 2.5 million Norwegian kroner ($C463,000).

Handke, 71, was born in Austrian state of Kärnten and studied law at the University of Graz from 1961 to 1965, but dropped out when the manuscript of his first novel Die  Hornissen (The Hornets) was accepted for publication. In the same year, the avant-garde play Publikumsbeschimpfung (Offending  the  Audience) was put on in Frankfurt, directed by Claus Peymann. 

Handke has since published more than thirty novels and works of prose, and has written a number of plays and screenplays. Perhaps his widely known work is Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter, (The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick), novel and screenplay of a 1972 film. He also wrote the screenplay for Wim Wenders' award winning Der  Himmel  über  Berlin  (Wings  of  Desire  or  The  Sky  Above  Berlin,  1987). 

Handke's previous awards include the 1973 Georg Buchner Prize, 2002 America Award, 2009 Franz Kafka Prize and 2012 Mulheimer Dramatikerpreis. In 2006 he was also nominated  with the Heinrich Heine Prize but the award was withdrawn as a result of opposition to his views on Serbia's role in the Yugoslav wars.

In 1996 Handke produced Eine winterliche Reise zu den Flüssen Donau, Save, Morawa und Drina oder Gerechtigkeit für Serbien (A Journey to the Rivers: Justice for Serbia), a film combining travelogue and essay in which he expresses his view of Serbia as among the among the victims of the wars. He also attacked Western media for misrepresenting the causes and consequences of the conflict. In in March 2006, Handke spoke at the funeral of Serbian wartime leader Slobodan Milošević. 

The jury's citation states that the 2014 International Ibsen Award is being awarded to Peter Handke for "a body of work that is unparalleled in its formal beauty and brilliant reflection", and continues: "If Ibsen was the model playwright of the bourgeois epoch, which has yet to end, Peter Handke is undoubtedly theatre's most eminent epic poet." The citation is available at http://www.internationalibsenaward.com.