Another new book by a WIGS member!

Katja Brunkhorst (2006), 'Verwandt-verwandelt'. Nietzsche's Presence in 
Rilke (Iudicium)

Abstract

Rilke’s relationship to Nietzsche is still nowhere near fully explored. 
This is due to the poet’s peculiar silence regarding the inescapably 
influential philosopher, as well as to a frequently acknowledged lack of 
evidence regarding that influence, the existence of which remains 
heatedly debated and, at best, speculatively assumed within scholarship. 
The recent discovery, however, of two copies of Nietzsche’s Also sprach 
Zarathustra amongst Rilke’s possessions has changed the status quo, as 
both contain reading traces identified as Rilke’s in one case, and (most 
probably) Lou Andreas-Salomé’s in the other. This unprecedented find not 
only proves for the first time Rilke’s familiarity with that book, but 
also makes visible which particular Nietzschean themes were of special 
interest to the poet. It is this study’s aim to trace Nietzsche’s 
presence, rendered tangible by those themes, in Rilke’s work and enquire 
whether, where and how he transformed it poetically.

In the first part, potential arguments against this objective are 
addressed. An investigation of the legitimacy of a comparison of a 
Dichter and a Denker is followed by a thorough record of the state of 
research on Rilke and Nietzsche so far, whilst a substantial chapter 
focuses on questions of influence and authorship. Relevant existing 
methodology (such as poststructuralism or Bloom’s Anxiety of Influence) 
is examined for its applicability to this particular study, before an 
alternative approach, a ‘reader-response-poetics’ (rather than -theory) 
drawing on both Nietzsche and Rilke themselves, is offered. Then, 
following the documentation of the new findings, the resulting scholarly 
desiderata this study sets out to meet are defined.

The second part completes the theoretical framework by uniting all 
remaining evidence such as Rilke’s own statements and those of his 
contemporaries regarding his reading of Nietzsche. The role of Lou 
Andreas-Salomé in both men’s lives, along with Rilke’s ‘Marginalien zu 
Nietzsche’ found in her estate, will also be discussed. Moreover, 
Zarathustra is introduced in two chapters, taking into account the 
circumstances of both Nietzsche’s writing, and Rilke’s reading, of it.

The third and last part, structured in analogy to the first three 
Zarathustra books, consists of in-depth textual analysis of 
representative Nietzsche passages marked by Rilke, along with 
interpretations of Rilkean works found to be relevant in their 
respective contexts. This process, during which the main topics Rilke 
apparently found most arresting in Nietzsche crystallized almost 
automatically, has ultimately also brought to light the continuity of 
Rilke’s reception of Nietzsche throughout his literary career.



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