Lecture with Julia Franck

Description

Baladine Klossowska was a painter, divorced, and mother of two sons – the younger would become famous under the name Balthus – when she met Rainer Maria Rilke in 1919. They had briefly known each other in Paris. What was born from this marked the last years of Rilke: it was she who, in 1921, discovered the Château de Muzot, above the Rhône Valley, the tower where he completed the Duino Elegies in February 1922 and wrote the Sonnets to Orpheus. In his letters, he called her "Merline." It was a love he needed and feared at the same time – a closeness that carried him, and a closeness he fled from in solitude. In "Ich ertrinke in den Wassern meiner eigenen Liebe. Rilkes letzte Geliebte" (Pfaueninsel, 2026), Julia Franck recounts this story from the correspondence of the two lovers, from the first months spent together to the letter Rilke sent her shortly before his death. It is a book about female obsession, about the struggle between attachment and independence – and about the price that Rilke's work demanded. Julia Franck, born in 1970 in East Berlin, is among the major voices of contemporary German-language literature. She received the Deutscher Buchpreis in 2007 for "Die Mittagsfrau"; her books are translated into more than thirty languages. After the reading, Julia Franck will discuss with Philippe Imwinkelried, co-director of the Rilke Foundation. The event is conducted in German.

Highlights

• Reading by Julia Franck on Rainer Maria Rilke
• Discussion with Philippe Imwinkelried
• Event in German language

General Information

The reading takes place at Schloss Leuk and explores the relationship between Baladine Klossowska and Rainer Maria Rilke. Julia Franck, winner of the Deutscher Buchpreis, will present her book on this complex love story.

Location

Rathausplatz 5, 3953 Leuk Stadt, Switzerland

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