Workshops 2012

RILKE WORKSHOPS with Daniel Polikoff
Winter/Spring 2012
RILKE/CAMPBELL: THE POET AND (THE) MYTH
THURSDAYS: 
February 9, March 8, April 19, May 24, 2012
10AM-2PM (bring brown bag lunch)
Workshops to be held at Richard Brown’s house in Kentfield.
$65/session
Inquiries and registration:
Contact Rose Black: 510.633.1888
or email roseblack@sonic.net

In his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell elaborates the path of the culture hero, the “monomyth” plotting the archetypal steps invariably involved in his or her development. Rainer Maria Rilke qualifies as one such “hero”—one who may command special interest because his poetic vision of the nature and destiny of the human soul translates ageless wisdom into a peculiarly modern form. In this workshop—drawing extensively on my just published book In the Image of Orpheus: Rilke—A Soul History as well as Campbell’s classic opus—we’ll review the signal phases of Rilke’s life and work in light of Campbell’s vision of the myth of the hero, aiming to gain better understanding of the archetypal depths of Rilke’s poetic odyssey and Campbell’s profound insight into the heart of myth.

We’ll begin these workshops with a general discussion of the nature of myth and its relation to poetry and Rilke’s early biography. If possible, please obtain and begin to read In the Image of Orpheus, Rilke—A Soul History  (available at Book Passage or through Amazon or Steinerbooks or Chiron) as well as The Hero With a Thousand Faces. First installment: read the introduction and first three chapters in Rilke—A Soul History (even better, the whole of Part I) and the introduction and first chapter in Campbell.

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