Older thread, I know, but appropriate.
I just finished reading Handke's book -- the one that appeared in a German newspaper as a two part serial in 1996 that got him into so much trouble with the Euros -- "Journey to the Rivers, Justice for Serbia".
First of all, the book is not intended as a pure political treatice. It is a kind of travelogue of his trip to Serbia in 1996 & his impressions before and during the trip, told in a poetic style. When he does talk about the politics, he questions himself as poets often do. What it is NOT, is some pro-Serb political diatribe -- to the contrary, it is humanistic and down-to-earth and face-to-face.
Handke, as a wordsmith himself, had recognized the contortions and manipulations of the Western press in their portrayal of the Serbs and of the Yugoslav wars. He had questions -- questions that no one seems to answer for him. It is precisely this which made him want to go to Serbia and see for himself. Before this trip, he had only been to Belgrade once -- thirty years before when one of his plays was presented in Belgrade and the play was not well recieved. But, he had spent a lot of time hiking in Slovenia where his mother was born.
So what got Handke in trouble with the Euros re this piece?
1. Handke portrays Serbs as "humans" -- ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary situation beyond their control -- and this is probably his greatest "sin". As human beings, he puts himself in their place and asks himself what he would do if, for example he were a Serb in the Krajina -- where one day you were a fully equal Yugoslav citizen and the next day you were designated "a minority" in the new "Croatia" -- a Croatia who looked remarkably like the WWII Croatia where Serbs were murdered by the thousands (Would I fight or would I run? And whose the real "aggressors" here? Those who wanted the change or those who wanted to stay the same?). In short, Handke humanizes Serbs --a people who the news-media and Western governments had so successfully dehumanized to the world in order to sanction and bomb. Handke shows Serb suffering as a people, who are now designated as "the children of Cain" on whom the world heaps its scorn.
2. Handke takes the European news media to task and he names names. For example --this writer for this paper, who was a lousy sports writer immediately promoted to "Balkans expert" for his prowess in contorting surreality in to a supposed "political reality". In fact, this writer is just a racist pig with a pen, etc.
3. Handke reveals Euro racism -- how the Austrians & Germans still see people as "volk" ("peoples", "races") The Slovenes were now on a mission to prove that they were "a proud Alpine people, hand-working and industrious" -- a true Germanic "volk". He also resurrects Austria's old slogan from WWI which translates to "Serbia must Die", and notes its parallels to its attitudes today. He holds up a mirror to his German and Austrian readers --Euros who no longer wish to see themselves as "racists" are actually behaving as badly or worse than their ancestors were re the Serbs.
4. Handke believed in Yugoslavia, mourns its passing and asks uncomfortable questions of the reader. He is left with more questions than statements and does not believe the party-line on this. He sees too much wrong with the context presented and its contradictory facts. And, he no longer loves the Slovenia of his past -- he longs for it old self, gentle, serene and pastoral, instead cold, industrious and Germanic.
In short, Handke is NOT a racist, just following orders. Handke is a human with questions about fellow humans. It is for this humanity he is being punished. Sad, sick and frankly even more scary in some ways than what has been done to Serbs. This is not just political, it is ideological.
Bump