Articolo
Abstract

The essay aims at investigating the epistolary form in Rilke’s critical writing and focuses in particular on two collections, the Briefe an einen jungen Dichter and the Briefe über Cézanne, showing how, in the former, the letters still retain the formal and stylistic features of private correspondence, proving to be first and foremost imago animae and self-confession, while in the latter they translate into the epistolary form that sachliches Sagen learnt from Cezanne’s painting and product of his «unwählerisches Schauen», which has already been masterfully achieved in poetry in the Dinggedichte.