A Companion to the Works of Rainer Maria Rilke - (Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture) by Erika a Metzger & Michael Metzger

About the Book

Illuminates the major aspects of the works of Germany's greatest 20th-century poet.

Book Synopsis

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) is the best-known German poet of his generation and is widely appreciated today by readers in Europe, the United States, and world-wide. Because of the inventiveness and musicality of his poetic language and the visionary intuition of his thinking, Rilke's influence extends well beyond poetry to include religion, philosophy, the social sciences, and the arts. His works have been widely translated into English, and new renderings of such cycles as the Duino Elegies appear frequently. Critics regard The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge as a seminal modern novel, and Rilke is one of the very few writers in German to be recognized internationally among the twentieth century's greatest authors. The Companion to Rilke provides essential, up-to-date analyses of a range of the major aspects of Rilke's works. The volume follows the chronology of Rilke's career, emphasizing those works that have met with the greatest critical interest. The essays include: Patricia P. Brodsky, "Colored Glass and Mirrors: Life with Rilke"; James Rolleston, "The Poetry and Poetics of the Young Rilke 1895-1902"; Judith Ryan, "Rilke's Early Narratives"; Ralph Freedman,"Das Stunden-Buch, Das Buch der Bilder>: Harbingers of Rilke's Maturity"; Lawrence Ryan, "Neue Gedichte-New Poems"; George C. Schoolfield, "Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge"; Kathleen Komar, "Rethinking Rilke's Duineser Elegien"; Alan Keele, "Poesis and the Great Tree of Being: A Holistic Reading of Rilke's Die Sonette an Orpheus"; Gerhard Bucher, "Rilke's Poetry in the French Language: The Enigma of Mythopoietic Reversal"; Karl E. Webb, "Rilke and the Visual Arts." ERIKA METZGER and MICHAEL METZGER (SUNY Buffalo) have written extensively on various aspects of German literature and have edited significant Baroque texts.

Review Quotes

...provides an important correction to popular views of Rilke as 'a visionary visited by muses and angels.-- "MODERN HUMANITIES RESEARCH"

An author as intriguing and complex as Rilke has many facets, and the 11 essays in this volume attest to the wealth of possible approaches.-- "CHOICE"

Editors and authors are all renowned Rilke specialists. The broad scope of their academic experience, careers, and area of critical activity guarantees the extremely high level of interest that this book evokes.-- "ARBITRIUM"

The cosmopolitan solitary is shown against the background of a developing modernistic culture, to which [Rilke] substantially contributed. The authors show profound insight into the many problems raised ... by work which combines the ineffable with the physical.-- "MODERN LANGUAGE STUDIES"

The ten essays by eminent Rilke scholars succeed in their intent to move toward a new image of Rilke.-- "GERMAN QUARTERLY"

This study is a wonderful, animated text, a lovely tribute to the poet's great humanity, and it should be included in any study of Rilke.-- "COLLOQUIA GERMANICA"