Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke · Austrian poet and writer (1875–1926) · 1875–1926

Appears in 31 videos · 43 passages, 23 of them in depth.

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani mainly gives a close reading of the Duino Elegies. From them he takes the restraint of the gesture on Attic steles, a sign that the human is measure and that the greater belongs to the gods1. He also takes up the contrast in the eighth elegy between the animal, which moves forward into the open, and man, who sees only death: this is finitude2. In the seventh, man shows the angel the column, the sphinx, the cathedral and music. He sees in this Hegel's progression of the arts, which Rilke arrived at without having read him3. From the ninth, he draws the theme of interiorization: we are here to say things and transform them into the invisible through speech4. He often quotes "beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror," used as the epigraph of Death in Venice. In the Sonnets to Orpheus, he comments on the tree rising in the ear, the lyre raised among the shades and "dance the orange," an image of fleeting pleasure. More recently, he stresses the dignity Rilke grants to lost girls5.

Summary produced automatically from 43 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Who is this?

René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet. Acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as a significant writer in the German language. His work is viewed by critics and scholars as possessing undertones of mysticism, exploring themes of subjective experience and disbelief. His writings include one novel, several collections of poetry, several volumes of correspondence and a few early novellas. […]

Read the article on Wikipedia

Text: Wikipédia, CC BY-SA 4.0, excerpt · Portrait: Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain

Search these passages

Season 5.2 · 2 May 2019#5.6 Nature or Landscape?

19:35Duino ElegiesThe theme of the Elegies is interiorization: we are perhaps in the world in order to interiorize what surrounds us.
21:49Sonnets to OrpheusHaving emerged from his periods of dryness, he returns to writing after the death of a young Russian dancer.
26:39Sonnets to OrpheusThe first sonnet unites the tree and song, a tree raised in the ear, and creates temples in hearing.

Season 11 · 26 Apr 2023Worldliness in Clouscard, or "The dominant ideology"

46:46Duino ElegiesThe seventh elegy: "being here is splendid," even for lost girls; but we forget what the mocking neighbor does not confirm.
50:43Duino ElegiesRe-reading: he grants dignity to prostitutes whom the world of respectable people despises.

Season 10 · 10 Feb 2022#9 PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION: Art, seen from here or from the other side?

2:09:09Duino ElegiesNinth elegy: we are here to say things, to interiorize them by naming them.
2:22:48Duino ElegiesPerishable things charge us with their invisible metamorphosis within us.

Season 8 · 30 Jul 2020#16 • Return to the logics of the subject

22:12Finds the same progression of the arts as Hegel without having read him; he read rather the heirs of Baudelaire instead.
1:00:53Duino ElegiesThe seventh elegy shows the angel human works, from the column to the cathedral and to music.
1:03:19Duino ElegiesIn him the angel has an ambivalent relation of fascination and hostility: "every angel is terrifying."

Season 5.1 · 31 Dec 2018#5.3 The philosopher's Odyssey: Revolutionary thought

10:31Duino ElegiesIn the eighth elegy, the animal sees the open, whereas man sees only death: this is finitude.
12:09Duino ElegiesThe seventh elegy glorifies that which stands erect, in a Hegelian progression of the arts up to music and the beloved.
53:33Reminder of the cathedral, the sphinx and the beloved: this is legislation by freedom.

Season 13 · 27 May 2025Flagrante Delights

11:21"Who will point a finger at a scent?": perfume as the lightest of things.
21:34Sonnets to OrpheusOnly one who has raised his lyre among the shadows hears the lightest of sounds, which recalls blind tuners.

Season 13 · 2 Dec 2024Evil, or the "unknowing" of the self

35:29Duino ElegiesAddresses lovers; the caution of the gesture on Attic stelae illustrates measure: this far our domain extends.

Season 10 · 23 Dec 202110#7 "Post-modern" eco-petty-Nazism - Plato's Gorgias

31:29Duino ElegiesMan shows the angel pylon, sphinx, cathedral, music: the heritage that some reduce to heredity.

Series · 25 Mar 2021Musicosophy 17. Interpretation

58:32Sonnets to OrpheusOnly the one who raised the lyre among the shades can proclaim infinite praise; he translates the passage.

Series · 9 Feb 2021Musicosophy 15. Plato, Rousseau, Hegel and music

1:26:22Sonnets to OrpheusComing out of a period of sterility, writes them after the death of a young dancer who danced to the end.

Season 9.1 · 24 Dec 2020#10 Benefits and harms of amnesia...

1:21:12Duino Elegies"The beautiful is only the first degree of the terrible," quoted in the opening credits of Death in Venice.
1:26:40Duino ElegiesThe Ninth Elegy: man is here to say things and transform them into the invisible within him, through speech.

Season 8 · 21 Jun 2020#11 • Return to the logics of the subject

2:51"The watchful, warm animal."
1:03:53Duino ElegiesThe first elegy opposes the caution of the gesture on Attic stelae to the grasping embrace of the kiss.

Season 8 · 11 Jun 2020#10 • Return to the logics of the subject

44:43"My breath would be too short to celebrate him."
1:02:42Duino ElegiesThe seventh elegy: everyone has known moments of grace, but modesty hides them before the mocking neighbor.