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

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of time and the intrinsic difficulty of its definition, it pursues an indirect approach. 18 Indeed, the way Hesse's characters relate to their memories, for example their mixed feelings towards their past, often offer more important insights into the character's appreciation of time than do their dialogues. Hesse's use of the literary device of 'epiphany' is at times more revealing of his attitude towards time than are his direct statements on the subject. His descriptions of timeless music and his idea of humour as a feature of immortality can achieve a much more vigorous poetic formulation than any of his direct pronouncements on eternity. The exploration of temporality will therefore draw on five interconnected themes, five inflections of time within Hesse's works: music, memory, metamorphosis, eternity, and humour. These themes, which share the same elusiveness of time it is equally difficult to pin down and describe their essence as well as the psychological responses they trigger might seem completely unrelated, at first glance. However they all point to time, as this thesis shall show, and interlock, to a greater or lesser degree, in Hesse's literary production. First and foremost, tempo and rhythm are primary elements of music which, like writing, unfolds through time; and time, in turn, participates in the very essence of music as noted by Hesse: 'das Wesen der Musik [ist] Zeit' (Letter of c. 1940; Musik, 177). Scholars (Valentin, Diirr, Ziolkowski, Moritz, Karalaschwili), biographers (Freedman, Limberg), and Hesse himself, have repeatedly stressed the importance of music in his life and work, as Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 will illustrate. Chapter 4 focuses on memory first and then on metamorphosis. 19 Memory, which is inconceivable without the concepts of past and present, acts as a bridge to the childhood of many of Hesse's characters and, in a perspective redolent of Rousseau's theories, Hesse identifies the ability to reconnect to childhood as being the true gift of a poet: 'es ist den Dichtern gegeben, dafi sie sich mehr als andere 18 Although we all tend to have an instinctive, empirical knowledge of what time is, it is difficult to come up with an exhaustive definition. In Confessiones (c. 397 A.D.), Saint Augustine gives a measure of the elusiveness of the subject in his well-known answer to the question of what time is: 'Provided that no one asks me, I know. If I want to explain it to an inquirer, I do not know' (Book XI, 230). 19 The emergence of 'epiphanies' in Hesse's work will be discussed at the end of the chapter (section 6) as a link with the discourse on the fleeting at the beginning of Chapter 5.
Menschen ihres fruhesten Lebens erinnern' (ESM, SW 1,185). Metamorphosis, which like memory is closely connected with the identity of a person, certainly implies a transformation in time. In Kurzgefasster Lebenslauf (1921-1924), metamorphosis appears as the ability of the artist, as well as of the child, to manipulate the external reality of the material world. Siddhartha comes to the realisation that all creatures and objects of creation take part in an ongoing process of transformation in the eternal flux of being (section 5). In Piktors Verwandlungen (1922), metamorphosis is represented as the only condition for happiness: '[w]enn [alle Wesen] nicht die Gabe der Verwandlung besitzen, verfallen sie mit der Zeit in Traurigkeit und Verkumme- rung und ihre Schonheit geht verloren' (SW 9,190). Hesse's perspective on eternity and its images in his works will be discussed in Chapter 5. An Artist's concern with immortality relates to an interest in a possible dimension beyond death. By implication, this interest also betrays the hope that, by virtue of some imperishable quality in their work, it may stand the test of time and transcend the boundaries of their epoch. It is no accident, therefore, that, in Der Steppenwolf, Mozart and Goethe are explicitly portrayed as members of what Hesse terms 'die Gemeinschaft der Unsterblichen' (letter of 1959, Musik 188). Hesse conspicuously draws on music to illustrate those qualities which, in his opinion, make a work of art of everlasting significance. 20 Musical forms, furthermore, such as the fugue foster his imagination and elicit images of eternity (see section 5.2 on 'simultaneity'). Mozart and Goethe, as Immortals, share two further interdependent qualities in Der Steppenwolf: self-transcendence and humour, the latter being the main thread for the concluding chapter (Chapter 6). As Goethe puts it, seriousness is an incidental characteristic of time, which stems from its overestimation on men's part, while humour informs the realm of eternity: Der Ernst [...] ist eine Angelegenheit der Zeit; er entsteht [...] aus einer Uberschatzung der Zeit. [...] In der Ewigkeit aber [...] gibt es keine Zeit; die 20 In this context, see Chapter 3, especially in connection with Hesse's appreciation of Wagner (section 3) and jazz (section 4). 8
Page 1 and 2: HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF
Page 3 and 4: Chapter 5 Eternity_________________
Page 5 and 6: Declaration The discussion on Tablo
Page 7 and 8: Abstract This thesis explores Herma
Page 9 and 10: century onwards.4 The discussion on
Page 11 and 12: An interest in eternity is not Hess
Page 13: die Zeit fur mich hat, wie ich die
Page 17 and 18: subject and countersubject in the l
Page 19 and 20: Finally, dates of publication have
Page 21 and 22: This chapter explores this intrigui
Page 23 and 24: und Du, Freund und Feind, Tier und
Page 25 and 26: Karalaschwili accounts for this pas
Page 27 and 28: paradoxically, his personal 'freedo
Page 29 and 30: As Boulby perceptively notes, chara
Page 31 and 32: [D]ie Legende [1st] jene Literaturf
Page 33 and 34: the other hand, he is convinced tha
Page 35 and 36: ejection entails an act of the mind
Page 37 and 38: his way to enlightenment, is attune
Page 39 and 40: 'Fifty year old Harry Haller [...]
Page 41 and 42: eal self is transferred onto pairs
Page 43 and 44: consideration. 55 Clearly, any aspe
Page 45 and 46: This chapter, which is the necessar
Page 47 and 48: In the twentieth century, the adven
Page 49 and 50: 609). 14 Klingsor even calls on the
Page 51 and 52: This conception of music, reflected
Page 53 and 54: eproducing the soloist's frenzy, in
Page 55 and 56: Spafi'). A further point we drew at
Page 57 and 58: they revolve around a common 'home
Page 59 and 60: More recent literary employment of
Page 61 and 62: In the chapter 'Erwachen', after hi
Page 63 and 64: 'modulated' and developed, identify
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movements of a tripartite sonata. M
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In addition, Hesse's main character
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Drin eins das andre halt, Zeigen si
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Klange alle wie die Stimme der Mutt
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father, soul and spirit. 59 To Gold
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evolution of his connections to mus
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Music means solace for Kuhn in Gert
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Furthermore, the erotic element of
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Hesse's penchant for 'klassische' (
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the aesthetic qualities of a piece
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creation is, for Hesse, the princip
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'Hesse had nothing against virtuosi
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undramatisch' (letter of 1898 to He
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As far as the formal plane is conce
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called 'absurd'. 53 The most conspi
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existence and the dismissal of any
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in that the former's opera paves th
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'Bine Arbeitsnacht' (1928), he poin
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debate on jazz but also by the Nazi
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catchy tunes threaten to drain art
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individuationis—accepting his lim
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Singen oder Summen oder auch nur da
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die Erden und Sterne harmonisch im
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in the euphoria of the 'Maskenball'
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Chapter 4 Memory, metamorphosis, an
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Hesse's approach to memory and the
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Hesse's main characters who, almost
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ich sah mich wahrend der ganzen Vor
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with music, which would eventually
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correlative' of childhood in Hesse.
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equally pressing desire to release
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mit Entsetzen erinnerte ich mich an
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Hesse ascribes his fascination with
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weigert sich, es will sich haufig a
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exceptions (see the myth of Pygmali
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internalized and replaced by transf
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to India ('Erinnerung an Mwamba').
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there are occasions when we experie
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Beschreibung einiger Augenblicke ku
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In the first place, time is no long
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Beja underlines that, for both Berg
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Karalaschwili refers to as the 'Zei
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(unity, memory, and music) merge in
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of Hesse's personal creed as well a
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Nichts war, nichts wird sein; alles
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The complex symbol of the river in
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as revealed by the opening line of
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While Mann's image of endless repet
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Glasperlenspiel). Clearly, 'authori
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spread very rapidly to the human sc
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poetic world: the metaphor of the s
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Verwandlungen, Goethe and Mozart-Pa
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und die Worte waren kleine schwarme
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After dealing with the rather probl
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greater foe than emotion' (Bergson,
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of experience may be arbitrary and
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identified by Ziolkoski (see Chapte
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Rad (1905-1906) is a noticeable exc
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however, the dualism of 'ideal' and
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'Witzbold und frechen Bettler' (SW
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from their own creation through an
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observed in Chapter 3 (section 2),
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works, and the motif (the mirroring
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hinein: Kindergesichter sufi und er
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As noted above (6.1) that the last
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Mozart play practical jokes on Harr
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superior wit. Furthemore, Mozart's
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The various sections do not [...] r
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Modernist distance from the norms o
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concludes that what might seem a sh
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Jahren war ich nicht mehr in dem sc
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irths and deaths, as portrayed in '
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Salvages' V; 1944, 30), as one of h
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HERMANN HESSE, Bibliography Betrach
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'Chapter 6: Siddhartha: The Way Wit
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Kilchenmann, Ruth J., 'Hermann Hess
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Theodorou, Panagiota, '«Das leiden
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Debord, Guy, The society of the spe
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Mann, Thomas, Doktor Faustus: das L
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Volkmann-Schluck, Karl H., 'Novalis
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Schmidt, Richard A.; Lee, Timothy D
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HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF TIME Salvatore C. P. ...

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