ABSTRACT
Title of dissertation: RILKE’S RUSSIAN ENCOUNTER AND THE TRANSFORMATIVE IMPACT ON THE POET
Victoria Ingeborg Finney, Doctor of Philosophy, 2014
Dissertation directed by: Professor Peter U. Beicken Department of Germanic Studies
Russian culture had a pivotal role in the development of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetic perception and evolution. As late as 1922, Rilke emphatically claimed that Russian
culture made him into what he is. Decades earlier, during his visits to Russia in 1899 and
1900, Rilke encountered many Russians from different walks of life: writers, artists,
intellectuals and ordinary folk. Having immersed himself in the study of Russian
language, literature, visual arts and religious ritual, Rilke prepared himself for a most
intensive acculturation of Russia as a cultural other. This cultural encounter often has been critiqued as shallow and tainted by the poet's preconceived Western ideas. In
contrast, by examining opposing critical views, this study investigates, interdisciplinarily
and from the perspective of transculturation, how three central concepts of Rilke – poverty, love, and the artist’s role – were substantially transformed by his absorption of
Russian cultural and literary discourses.
Russia is defined here as a ‘representational space,’ employing Henri Levebvre’s
concept of geographical space consisting of both physical attributes and imaginary
symbols. Using Wilhelm Dilthey’s concept of ‘lived experience’, the study approaches
Rilke’s Russian encounter as a holistic intercultural experience on both conscious and
unconscious levels. Incorporating these theoretical aspects into a modified concept of
transculturation, the study transcends the question of accuracy of Rilke’s Russian
depictions so often raised in biographical studies that insist on positivistic factuality.
Instead, approached transculturally, Rilke's Russian encounter highlights the
transformative changes that the poet’s subjective perceptions and poetic development
underwent. This is enhanced by the references to and analyses of Rilke's works informed by his Russian encounter.
Most significantly, Rilke’s transculturation as informed by his transformative
Russian encounter generates the development of the concept of a compassionate imagination based on the idea of universal interconnectedness. This fostered Rilke’s unique view of the individual as an integral part of a universal unity, by which the individual is considered inherently worthy regardless of limiting attributes such as social class or gender. This perception channeled Rilke’s idea that the tragedy of the poor and the root of modern inability to love are to be found in the constant construction of identities imposed on an individual by others. For Rilke, after his Russian encounter, art’s purpose was to create awareness of the individual’s place in the universal unity.
RILKE’S RUSSIAN ENCOUNTER AND THE TRANSFORMATIVE IMPACT ON THE POET
By
Victoria I. Finney
Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2014
Advisory Committee: Professor Peter U. Beicken, Chair Professor Elke P. Frederiksen Assistant Professor Marianna Landa Professor Rose