Abstract

The Border between man and animal: On Heidegger’s interpretation of Rilke’s Eight Elegy The following contribution aims to analyse the main elements and motives underlying Heidegger’s critique of Rilke's Eighth Elegy, elements and motifs which appear in their own right in the 1942/43 course that Heidegger gave in Freiburg and which resulted in the volume entitled Parmenides. Here, in fact, the philosopher confronts, among other things, one of Rilke's most famous works and, going well beyond the exegesis of the text, puts forward an interpretation of the work itself in which Rilke and his Eighth Elegy are, so to speak, accused of using and developing concepts and themes proper to metaphysical thought. The aim of the following paper is therefore to explore the Heideggerian critique and to show in what sense Heidegger considers Rilke's elegy to be «metaphysical».