Dahlem Humanities Center Lecture by Karen Leeder (University of Oxford) 

The aim of the lecture is to examine the eventful and sometimes curious reception of the German-language poet Rainer Maria Rilke, especially in the English-speaking world, with the intention of first of all exploring the phenomenon that John Bayley has called 'Rilke-in-English'. Beyond that, however, I will explore the conditions and mechanisms that allow some poets to transcend their own historical moment and location and celebrate an afterlife as world poets through the English language. Finally, I will bring Rilke himself back into focus with the question of what this history of reception might say about him and his work. In this sense, I explore translation processes in the most general sense, which take place across time and cultures.

Please register by July 9.