Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book begins with an examination of the intellectual climate as Rainer Maria Rilke experienced it at the turn of the century. It focuses on existing scholarship and the poet's own pronouncements in order to explore the major influences on the young Rilke's conception of processes of becoming. The book discusses the earliest stages of Rilke's poetic development, re-assessing his juvenilia both on their own terms and as the embryo of his subsequent work. It considers the influence of Russia on Rilke's conception of 'der werdende Gott' in the Stunden-Buch, examining the four year gestation period as an instance of his own process of maturation. The book also considers the Neue Gedichte themselves, in relation to the Rodin monograph and the Briefe uber Cezanne. Two basic types of process are suggested: linear development and circular self-containment.