O sentido poético-existencial do quiasma na obra de Rilke

Abstract

This paper proposes an interpretation of chiasmus in Rilke’s work in contrast with Paul de Man’s reading – the first scholar to analyze chiasmus as a determining figure in Rilkean poetry.
Starting with a reassessment of the Belgian critic’s interpretation, I first highlight his precision in describing Rilke’s poetic construction, then question his argument that the figure of chiasmus explicitly situates Rilke’s poetry within the realm of falsehood. In doing so, de Man not only denies Rilke’s poetry the messianic claim often emphasized by general readers and scholars but also dismisses its deeper existential concerns, reducing it to mere linguistic play. By contrast, I argue that Rilke’s poetic inversion, indeed frequently structured as chiasmus, constitutes a borderline poetic-existential effort to affirm and value finitude. In this text, I seek to clarify this effort primarily through the lens of what I term a “poetics of ‘singeleza’ (Portuguese word here
understood as a poetic simplicity/tenderness)”, which moves toward valuing the small, the fragile, and the fleeting.