The 2nd Session of the Seminar on Peter Handke

At 13:00 on June 13, 2020, Prof. Feng Yalin of Sichuan International Studies University attended the 26th lecture of “The Road to Worldwide Humanities” series— “Exchanges and Cooperation of Invited Experts by Department of German Language and Literature” series at the invitation of the SFS. In no more than three hours, Prof. Feng mainly analyzed “language crisis” and “the alienation of people” of The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter) which is Peter Handke’s third novel published in 1970. After the full and wonderful lecture, Prof. Feng had a warm online exchange with nearly 200 teachers and students from over 20 universities such as Sichuan International Studies University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai International Studies University, Xi’an International Studies University, Beijing Language and Culture University, Dalian University of Foreign Language and Beihang University.

Before the lecture, Prof. Feng had an online discussion with the teacher representatives of Department of German Language and Literature of the SFS, and shared the academic events and teaching activities of the two departments in this semester. At 12:50, in the Waiting Room of Tencent Meeting, there were nearly 200 teachers and students from more than 20 universities. Then, Liu Dongyao, a lecturer of the Department of German Language and Literature of the SFS introduced the lecture process through screen sharing. Later, Wang Xumei, the director of Department of German Language and Literature, made a brief introduction of Prof. Feng to the teachers and students online. Prof. Feng Yalin is the director, professor and doctoral supervisor of Department of German, Sichuan International Studies University. She is also the doctoral supervisor of Comparative Literature Studies Program, the director of the Center for Sino-Foreign Comparative Cultural Studies, and honored with State Council Special Allowance Expert and National Labor Medal. As the editor of Literaturstransse, she undertook 6 projects at provincial and ministerial level and above, and published over 90 papers in top journals of foreign language and literature. Prof. Feng was given a warm welcome.

Prof. Feng’s report is titled “Language Crisis and the Alienation of People: An Analysis of Peter Handke’s novel The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter). First, she discussed the translation and understanding of the word “Angst” in the book title, distinguished it from “worry”, and explained that it is a nameless and aimless fear. Then, Prof. Feng shared her reading experience and research findings with the participants. She introduced the protagonist Bloch’s experiences and his “language sickness”, and identified his inability to speak normally as the alienation of people in contemporary capitalist society. It is difficult for Bloch to communicate normally with others, which reflects his loss of understanding and use of language. In the second part of the report, Prof. Feng talked about Bloch’s split of individual consciousness, and she believed that this split state caused a murder created by him. She demonstrated the fear of survival that people cannot find a place to live in society with such examples as the passive state of the goalkeeper’s penalty kick. This passive and isolated fear of survival led to Bloch’s strong and distorted self-centeredness. Later, Prof. Feng turned to Wittgenstein’s (1889-1951) language game theory, and believed that Peter Handke used the linguistic ontology of “usage is meaning” to show his reality and create the alienated artistic image of Bloch. In the third part of the report, Prof. Feng guided the participants to do close reading together and explained the original text many times, raising the questions including the text about contingency, uncertainty, the slip between signifier and signified, and fragmentation of time and phenomena in the text. The problem of fragmentation. Prof. Feng believed that this novel breaks logocentrism (speech-centrism), which means that words here cannot avoid miscommunication and misunderstanding because of the body’s presence. Prof. Feng also pointed out that Handke has achieved the dissolution of extremes in the world by destroying the certainty of signifier.

After Prof. Feng’s lecture, some teachers put forward their views and questions. Prof. Ren Weidong, the director of Literature Teaching and Researching Office in Department of German, Bejing Foreign Studies University, first asked questions about the relationship between the image of goalkeepers and language communication. Later, Dr. Liu Dongyao, a teacher of the SFS, asked about the active and passive nature of fear, and thought that alienation is a challenge to the environment. Then Dr. Wang Xumei asked Prof. Feng whether the goalkeeper's successful penalty kick at the end of the novel could be regarded as a hope of finding a successful survival state. Finally, Dr. Ma Yan, a teacher of the School of German in Xi’an International Studies University, and Shi Liang of Beijing Foreign Studies University respectively proposed the new perspectives of text interpretation, including the successful diving for a ball because of “physical presence but mental absence”, and the anarchism by the break of the fixed association between signifier and signified. Prof. Feng answered each question with patience and in detail.

In the two and a half hours of lectures and discussions, Prof. Feng Yalin introduced to all participants the character of Bloch in the novel, the staggered language communication, and the passive survival crisis which he faced in witty, concise, and profound words. At the end of the activity, all the teachers and students here expressed their gratitude and admiration to Prof. Feng, and extended their gratitude to the SFS for organizing a lively report on Handke.

From: Gong Fujia, Liu Dongyao.