Existence is –still– magical

On the transformation of subjectivity and the attitude toward technology in the visionary phase of Rainer Maria Rilke

Abstract

Rilke’s oeuvre is widely regarded as one of the major hermeneutic challenges posed by twentieth-century literature. This article seeks to offer an interpretation of a particular movement that emerges during Rilke’s visionary phase: a transformation of subjectivity that engenders a fundamentally different mode of engagement with the world. This movement can be traced through a close reading of the Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus. The radical transformation of subjectivity enacted in Rilke’s work—especially in his later period—results in a reconfiguration of the human relation to the world. We aim to examine this reconfiguration through the lens of the role that technique plays in the Sonnets to Orpheus. Our inquiry begins by situating Rilke, drawing on Heidegger’s perspective, as a poet writing at the end of metaphysics. From this point of departure, we will attempt to elucidate what poetry signifies for Rilke himself. The central part of our study will consist in a reading of the Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus, through which we will articulate and substantiate our principal thesis.