Ecologies of Reading in Dante and Rilke

Abstract

The thesis seeks to draw together Dante and Rilke’s poetry through the lens of environmental philosophy. Focusing on the non-human subjects that populate both poets’ works, it argues that for Dante and Rilke human existence is inherently relational. It is only by acknowledging our position as interdependent agents in the cosmic network that we can attain fulfilment. The thesis is structured as a series of close readings, tracing the presence of stone, soil, and stars across Rilke’s lyric poetry (in particular the Stundenbuch, Neue Gedichte, Duineser Elegien, and Sonette an Orpheus) and Dante’s Commedia. With my choice of subject matter, I intend to draw attention to elements of the natural world neglected in much mainstream ecocriticism. The three main chapters – ‘Petrifaction’, ‘Putrefaction’, and ‘Stellification’ – are meant not only as themes I trace through Dante and Rilke’s works, but as ‘ecologies of reading’ that offer us alternatives to patriarchal models of poetic tradition. Drawing on the contemporary philosophical schools of New Materialism and Object- Oriented-Ontology, I argue that reading should aim to bring to light connections across boundaries of difference, such as the temporal and geographical boundaries that divide Dante from Rilke. Set against the backdrop of ecological Deep Time, the Middle Ages and the twentieth century are brought into close proximity, demonstrating the fruitfulness of viewing literary history as a constellation rather than a linear arrow. I do not attempt to prove historical connections between the poets, rather to suggest the productivity of juxtaposing texts which would conventionally be ordered under incompatible national and historical categories. Moreover, I attempt to demonstrate that the ecological methodologies I employ are not external lenses applied to Dante and Rilke retrospectively, but modes of reading that inhere within both poets’ works, albeit expressed through different terminology. My argument is ultimately an ethical one – namely, that it is through what Donna Haraway terms ‘becoming-with’ that Dante and Rilke’s poetic subjects attain the fullness of existence.