Esotericism and Occultism in the Works of the Austrian Poet Rainer Maria Rilke

Foreword by Kathleen L. Komar; Preface; Research History and Method; Acknowledgements; Part I: The Young Rilke's Reception of Occultism; 1. Occult Influences in Prague; 2. Flammarion's Urania: Clairvoyance, Telepathy, and the Continuity of the Occult Epistemology in Rilke's Work; 3. The Occultist Carl du Prel as Nietzchean Eagle: Thematic Echoes in Rilke's Book of Hours; Part II: Rilke and Parapsychology; 1. Maeterlinck's 'False curiosity': La Mort; 2. Schrenck-Notzing, Tischner and Wasielewski Excursus: The Ideal of 'The Whole' in a Letter to Countess Nora and in The Life of Mary; Part III: Rilke's Reception of Spiritualism; 1. The Aesthetical Fascination of the Occult: Rilke and Princess Marie Thurn und Taxis; 2. The Duino Seances and the 'Unknown Lady'; 3. The Tension between Spiritualism and Psychology; 4. Rilke Acting as a Medium for the Spirit of Count C.W.; 5. Spiritualistic Seances in the Early Years in Switzerland; Part IV: Spiritualistic and Occult Motives in Rilke's Works; 1. The Spiritualistic Requiems; 2. Spiritualistic Elements in the First Duino Elegy; 3. Scandinavian Courtesy and Spiritualistic Modernity in Ranier Maria Rilke's The Notebooks of Malte laurids Brigge; Epilogue: Contemporary Spiritual Rilke Reception; Bibliography; Index of Subjects; Index of Names.