Rainer Maria Rilke: Autobiography, Fiction, and Therapy (Studies on Themes and Motifs in Literature)

Rainer Maria Rilke has been hailed as the most celebrated German-speaking poet of the twentieth century, if not in all history. Rainer Maria Rilke: Autobiography, Fiction, and Therapy gives a comprehensive overview of the autobiographical tendencies in Rilke’s poetry and fiction from his early works to his masterpiece: The Duino Elegies. Particular attention is given to The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. Hajo Drees discusses and positions current theories on autobiography and autobiographical fiction and applies these findings to Rilke’s life and creative writing. A close analysis of Rilke’s theory on art and the artist with selected letters to his friends, editors, and family exposes three significant developmental stages dividing Rilke’s work into three distinct phases.