“Empathic Attunement”: Cvetaeva's and Pasternak's Literary Tributes to Rilke

Abstract

In the summer of 1926, three great poets of the twentieth century – Tsvetaeva, Pasternak, and Rilke – exchanged letters. This three-way epistolary exchange conducted by all three poets in German ended several months later, after Rilke's death from leukemia. The correspondence first saw the light in the German edition in the 1980's, then, gradually, it started appearing in other languages, including Russian. It has drawn comments from such a notable critic as Susan Sontag. Tsvetaeva's long poem, ‘Novogodnee’, written shortly after Rilke's death, was analyzed extensively by Joseph Brodsky. In my paper, I provide brief readings of three literary tributes to Rilke by Tsvetaeva and Pasternak. I use the psychological concept of “empathic attunement”, worked out by the prominent psychologist Heinz Kohut. I find that reading the literary tributes through the concept of empathy points to the human, as opposed to the mythical side of this fascinating literary triangle.