num_pages: 144
description: This play is the story of an autistic adolescent who finds himself at a complete existential loss on the stage, with but a single sentence to call his own. Drilled by prompters who use terrifyingly funny logical and alogical language-sequences, Kaspar learns to speak "normally" and eventually becomes creative "doing his own thing" with words; for this he is destroyed.In Offending the Audience and Self-Accusation, one-character "speak-ins," Handke further explores the relationship between public performance and personal identity, forcing us to reconsider our sense of who we are and what we know.
language: English
title: Kaspar and Other Plays
titlecomplete: Kaspar and Other Plays
genres: Theatre, Drama, Classics, Plays, Own, German Literature, 20th Century, Fiction
ratings_count: 289
publisher: Farrar Straus and Giroux