RILKE - DICHTER DER ANGST. Lesung und Gespräch mit Biograph Manfred Koch

In the organizer's words:

Rainer Maria Rilke is one of the most influential poets of the 20th century. In the latest biography of him, Manfred Koch sheds light on Rilke's life and work, showing him to be an extremely sensitive and gender-fluid poet of the emerging modern age. The result is a captivating narrative of a radical life that wants to be all art and is characterized by a sensitivity of perception that comes frighteningly close to the abysses in himself and in his time. Creating poetry for eternity and turning life into "true" art is what matters to Rilke. After decades of study, a new, contemporary approach to the poet is now available in time for his 150th birthday, supplemented by exemplary, comprehensible interpretations of his work. "An outstanding achievement, a psychologically and aesthetically sensitive, extremely substantial and sharply profiled description of the life and work of a great poet"(FAZ).

Manfred Koch (*1955 in Stuttgart) is a German literary scholar and literary critic. Until 2021, he taught German literary history at the universities of Giessen, Tübingen and Basel. He has lived in Switzerland since 2007.

In cooperation with the Institute of German Studies and with the kind support of Justus Liebig University Giessen