Sense and Creative Labor in Rainer Maria Rilke's Prose Works

This book is an investigation of the role of creative labor and the five senses in Rainer Maria Rilke’s prose works including his “Primal Sound” essay the Stories of God The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge and his monograph on Auguste Rodin. It is about several protagonists’ quest to achieve creative labor by reconnecting spirit or the unconscious to the hand. There are many difficulties in the way however illustrated by Rilke’s essays tales and monographs. In the process of overcoming these impediments the five senses are expanded and refined. Rilke’s characters undergo a transformation that not only allows them to do true creative labor but also brings them into a new relationship with themselves the world around them and other people.Nicholas Carroll Reynolds received his PhD at the University of Oregon USA. He has authored several articles on philosophy and literature and has worked as an editor and translator. He is currently employed at Trinity University in San Antonio Texas USA where he teaches in the German Philosophy and First Year Experience programs as well as in Trinity’s Study abroad program in Berlin Germany.