HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF TIME Salvatore C. P. ...

Hesse's main characters who, almost without exception, embody the type of
the 'Suchender' (or 'self-seeker' in Ziolkowski's terms, see 2.3), have to come to grips
with their past in their quest for their own identities: Hermann Lauscher strives to
recall as many images of his childhood as he can, Kuhn has to face up to the incident
that crippled him as an adolescent, Harry Haller regards his past as thorny, and his
sense of guilt is often reawakened by memories (see 4.4). 6
4.2 Hesse and memory
In emphasizing the different modalities of memory, King points out:
We remember in different ways at different times: the same memories can be
recalled voluntarily, and resurface involuntarily. Moments of the past can be
invoked by words, smells, tastes, and sounds: we represent these moments to
ourselves in visual images, in stories, in conversations. When people try to
articulate the ways in which they remember, metaphor seems inevitable. (9)
In Hesse's works, each sense can act as a catalyst for recollection, and memories are
portrayed through metaphors calling on various senses. At the outset of Hermann
Lauscher, for example, the narrator of the autobiographical 'Meine Kindheit' claims
that his recollection of the past begins with the scent of flowers or a song. In
Nurnberger Reise, September reminds the narrator of the passing of time, 'es war
September geworden [...] Zu keiner Zeit spiire ich wie in diesen Tagen den Ruf der
Verganglichkeit' (SW 11,141). The evocative power of sounds, too, plays a central
role in the process of reminiscing for Hesse's characters. In Eine Stunde hinter
Mitternacht, the queen begs the court minstrel to play the violin because 'ihr Klang ist
mir lieb, denn er erinnert mich meiner fernen Heimat' (SW 1, 201). Music has a
similar effect on Hesse himself who, in a memorial page for a former schoolmate
(Paul Eberhard) who committed suicide, maintains:
Plotzlich aber schlug der Spieler den ersten Takt des Trauermarsches an, und
ich erwachte jah wie von einem unvermuteten Stofi, doch erwachte ich nicht
6 As Boulby observes: 'Hesse's love and enthusiasm were above all else directed to memories of his own
childhood, which Lauscher already sees as being at an insufferable distance, a lost world of innocence' (7).
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