Rilke’s Testimony

Art’s power over its viewers is attested to in Rilke’s poem “Archaic Torso of Apollo.” Rilke underscores the statue’s vitality and movement, especially noticeable in the eyes and sexual organ. The gaze hosted in the torso is what endows it with life and movement. The statue sees because it is simultaneously seeing and being seen. What gazes from it is the gaze of the rav, hosted in the statue. The statue not only sees but also speaks: “You must change your life.” This is an ethical command, originating in the sovereignty of the rav. Here ethics is morphed into aesth-ethics, by displacing the event of hospitality from the face of the other to art. Art thus possesses an interpellative character. Yet interpellation in Rilke’s poem is not the same as that defined by Althusser, as it is performed not in a political or religious domain but in the domain of art. Althusserian interpellation is inclusive, validating the subject’s identification with the order. Rilkean interpellation is exclusive, ousting the subject from the order. Rilke is given a double role, both as a witness to the event of the rav’s hospitality and as the one attesting to this event in his poem.