Die Bedeutung des Gelesenen: Eine komparatistische Studie über Rainer Maria Rilke und Marcel Proust
Abstract The article discusses the hierarchical model of readers’ types outlined by Marcel Proust in his essay “Journées de lecture” and reconstructs Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetics of reading in accordance with the poems “Der Lesende” and “Der Leser” as well as the thematic relevant parts of the novel Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge. Based on the conclusions made thereby, it draws attention to the possibilities arising from a comparative reading of the description of the scene in which the young Marcel reads in the garden of Combray from Proust’s Du côté de chez Swann, and Rilke’s poem “Hebend die Blicke vom Buch”. Moreover, it is shown that in this short but complex poem, the German poet fulfills the ideal of a unity of reading and writing emphasized by the French author. Combining the motive of looking away from the book typical of his prose and poetry with Proust’s typical motive of the memory of a certain read, Rilke brings into being a poetic picture of reading, which triggers both the memory and the reflection, and an image of a reader that reveals his own productive reception.