Renate Wood: George Trakl: An Introduction (July 1992)

In 1914, Renate Wood notes, Wittgenstein donated grants to two Austrian writers; one was Rilke, the other George Trakl. While Rilke’s work is widely translated and well known to an American audience, Trakl’s is far less so, though, Wood argues, his influence on German writers may have been even greater than Rilke’s. In this lecture, Wood examines the work of this neglected poet, exploring the “spiritual space” in his poems and the relationship of his poetry to the “so-called Expressionist movement.”