What are poets for in these destitute times? - Hölderlin/Heidegger

Rainer Maria Rilke: a poet for these times

Hosted by the Writing & Society Research Group
in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Australien

Speakers:
Professor Mark S. Burrows & Rev Dr Stephanie Dowrick
Moderator: Professor Jane Goodall

The power of poetry to transform the way we see the world has rarely been better shown than in the work of Rainer Maria Rilke, a giant of 20th-century European writing and increasingly a visionary voice for our own time, captivating contemporary readers with his fearlessness about the 'deepest things'. Mark Burrows and Stephanie Dowrick will reflect on Rilke's most sublime work and particularly how he illuminates contemporary spiritual experience as well as our understanding of creativity and inspiration.

Mark S. Burrows is Professor of the History of Christianity at Andover Newton Theological School. He is a recent recipient of a Henry Luce Fellowship in Theology and the author and editor of numerous books and articles published in the United States and Germany. Also a very fine poet, Mark Burrows has published translations of Rilke's poems. Many of his most recent translations appear for the first time in Stephanie Dowrick's In the Company of Rilke.

Stephanie Dowrick, PhD, is the author of In The Company of Rilke, the first book-length study in English of the transcendental aspects of Rilke's work. Founder of The Women's Press, she is author of internationally successful books including Intimacy & Solitude, Forgiveness & Other Acts of Love, Choosing Happiness and The Universal Heart, is 'Inner Life' columnist for Good Weekend and an Adjunct Fellow of the Writing and Society Research Group.

Jane Goodall is the author of several books on literature and the performing arts, the most recent of which, Stage Presence (Routledge, 2008) was shortlisted for the 2009 Theatre Book prize in London. Her novels The Walker, The Visitor and The Calling (all published by Hachette) have sold widely in Australia and been translated into German, Russian and Spanish. Last year she was joint winner of the Calibre Essay Prize.

The talks will be given in English.

RSVP
Bookings essential for this free event: email writing@uws.edu.au.

Refreshments will be served from 6.00pm.