Instructor: Dr. Arthur Turfa has a MA in Germany from UC-Irvine, where he took a Rilke seminar. Having studied, traveled, and lived in Germany, he has taught German on university and secondary levels, and served in bi-lingual Lutheran parish settings. A published poet, he considers Rilke one of his main influences. Description: Rainer Maria Rilke is one of the best writers of the 20th Century, and perhaps in the US, the best-known one who wrote in German. Austrian by birth, he truly was cosmopolitan in every sense of the word. This course will briefly review the Austria-Hungary and Europe in which he lived and then look at his poetic output. The New Poems, Life of Mary, Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus come into consideration, with attention being paid to the Dinggedicht (Thing Poem).