This study of Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) examines the poet's understanding of the malleable
nature of identity while addressing the question of Rilke's place in literary history. In line
with contemporary literary theory which views the self as a societal construction and strategic
narrative device this study explores Rilke's preoccupations with identity in his work as he
investigates the disintegration of the subjective self in the modern world. Rilke's re-readings
of the mythological figures of Orpheus and Narcissus in modern psychological terms as well as
in terms of traditional poetics are keys not only to his poetics and his changing
understanding of self but also to his evolving critique of society. This study tracks how
Rilke's Orphic work disengages traditional patterns of perceptions not only to challenge
fidelity to history but also to recover the power of traditional elements from that history to
help articulate subjectivity in new terms.
