‚Eminent neugieriges Wagnis‘

Abstract

After presenting academic studies on contemporary literature between 1910 and 1930 in general and in particular on Rilke, I discuss the author’s perception of the criticism on his own poetry in order to explore the implications for TheSonnets to Orpheus (1923). Letters to R. H. Heygrodt demonstrate that Rilke harboured anxiety in relation to biographical and hermeneutical forms of criticism. Though he acknowledges that he is considered to be a “Plastiker” since the Neue Gedichte (1907/08), he attempts to overcome this critical framework of “plasticity” in the Sonnets to Orpheus.