Articles

Icarusarbeid: Een lectuur van Peter Verhelsts dichtbundel Verhemelte (1996)

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Abstract

The oeuvre of the Flemish postmodernist Peter Verhelst readsas a continuous ‘Arbeit am
Mythos' (Hans Blumenberg): in his poems, prose and plays Verhelst rewrites the same
mythological stories over and over again with small variations. Particularly references to
the myth of Icarus are a connecting thread throughout the work of Verhelst. In this article,
the myriad references to Icarus in Palate (1996), Verhelst’s seventh collection of poems,
will be analysed. I will argue that those references are of crucial importance to understand
and interpret the plot, the worldview, the view on language and the poetics of Palate. The
analysis forms a part of my PhD-research on myth, tragedy and the tragic in the work of
Peter Verhelst (1987-2012).

How to Cite:

Velle, M., (2013) “Icarusarbeid: Een lectuur van Peter Verhelsts dichtbundel Verhemelte (1996)”, Handelingen - Koninklijke Zuid-Nederlandse maatschappij voor taal- en letterkunde en geschiedenis 67, 43-57. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/kzm.v67i0.17625