Poeetiline mõtlemine, kirjandus ja fenomenoloogia Peter Handke teadvuspoeetika näitel / Poetic Thinking, Literature and Phenomenology—on the Example of Peter Handke’s Poetics of Awareness
Authors: Pajević Marko 
Published: December 2024

Teesid: Käesolev artikkel toob esile seose kirjanduse ja fenomenoloogia vahel. See rõhutab eeskätt keele tähtsust fenomenide tajumisel. Seejärel keskendub see 2019. aasta Nobeli kirjandusauhinna laureaadi Peter Handke poeetikale, kusjuures kõigepealt visandatakse lühidalt tema aistimispoeetika, et siis lühiteksti „Spliti saapapuhastaja“ („Der Schuhputzer von Split“) näitel välja tuua, mispoolest seda kirjutamise viisi võib nimetada fenomenoloogiliseks, mida seejärel süvendatakse tema poetoloogiliste mõtteavalduste varal. Sealjuures viidatakse ikka ja jälle ka minu poeetilise mõtlemise mõistele.

This article shows the relationship between literature and phenomenology, referring throughout to my concept of poetic thinking. It starts out by emphasising the importance of language for the perception of phenomena. It then focuses on the poetics of Peter Handke, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize for Literature, first briefly outlining his poetics of perception and then using the example of his short text ‘The Shoe Shiner of Split’ to demonstrate how this type of writing is phenomenological, which is then deepened by means of his poetological statements.
Phenomenology explores how people experience things. Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology, argued against empirical views, building on Immanuel Kant’s transcendental philosophy and asserting that the human world is always shaped by our means of perception. He introduced the concept of epoché, which involves suspending judgment to analyse experiences. Husserl’s focus on the perception of phenomena aimed to avoid prejudices in the cognitive process and establish phenomenology as a rigorous science. The world is thus always the result of the perceiver’s historical, cultural and social situatedness. To understand the world better, we must thus better understand the processes of perception.
Language plays a crucial role in phenomenology and the processes of perception. Wilhelm von Humboldt described languages as worldviews, which shape our cognition and understanding of the world. Language is essential for making sensory experiences intelligible. Literature, as the art of language, serves as a laboratory for these processes, transforming our perceptions through poetic thinking, that is, the constitution of a subject in creative and dialogical speech, transforming its ways of feeling and thinking in short, its ways of perceiving the world.
Handke’s short text ‘The Shoe Shiner of Split’ describes an encounter between a traveller and a shoe shiner in Split, set against a backdrop rich in religious and philosophical undertones. The traveller, after contemplating religious figures at the cathedral, witnesses the shoe shiner meticulously polishing his own shoes with extraordinary care and precision. Moved by the shoe shiner’s dedication, the traveller decides to have his own shoes shined. The shoe shiner’s actions are depicted with reverence, emphasising the spiritual and ceremonial nature of his work. His care transforms the traveller’s shoes into shining artifacts, providing a sense of enlightenment and healing. This act is portrayed as a form of anointment, resonating with religious themes and the traveller’s search for meaning. Handke’s use of language underlines the transformative power of attention to the phenomena. This experience underscores Handke’s broader literary theme of finding deep significance and beauty in ordinary moments, bridging the gap between the human being and the world, aligning with phenomenological principles of perception.
After an analysis of Handke’s phenomenological writing in this short text, the article further explores in Handke’s poetological writings how his poetic thinking relates to phenomenology. Handke’s view of ‘life without poetry’ is characterised by a lack of feeling and detachment from the world, functioning mechanically within it. Conversely, poetry brings a sense of connection and self-awareness. For Handke, writing is a realisation of this connection, identifying art with intense and aware perception, making it a gateway to the world and feelings.
Handke’s approach aligns with Martin Buber’s ‘realising thinking’ in dialogical thinking, differentiating veritable reality from conventional reality. This veritable reality is the domain of art. Paul Cézanne’s art influences Handke, teaching the importance of perspective shifts to awaken the inner richness. Handke values the ‘presence’ in art, where moments become constitutive of life. He uses terms such as ‘now-time’ from Walter Benjamin to highlight art’s role in making the present meaningful and transformative.
Handke’s poetics, however, differs from Buber’s dialogical thinking, which emphasises the subject–subject relationship. Handke remains in a subject–object framework, focusing on individual perception and on the connection of an ‘I’ with the world, rather than an encounter of two subjects. Despite this difference, his work parallels the pursuit of connection and world-feeling found in poetic thinking.
Literature, in Handke’s view, in granting the phenomena attention, makes the things reveal themselves, thus showing their appreciation (‘das Sich-Erkenntlich-Zeigen der Dinge’). This perspective aligns with phenomenology but also transcends it by actively creating a human world through poetic transformation. Handke’s poetics epitomises phenomenology’s focus on perception. Handke’s literature is phenomenological because it recognises that phenomena gain their meaning through the human meaning-making perception process. However, poetic thinking extends beyond phenomenology by being inherently creative. It does not merely analyse phenomena but actively participates in their creation. Through poetic thinking, a human world emerges, continuously formed and reformed by our engagement with it.