HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF TIME Salvatore C. P. ...
HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF TIME Salvatore C. P. ... HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF TIME Salvatore C. P. ...
origins of which have been lost in the mists of time. 37 In a similar vein, the idea of eternal recurrence, the basic assumption of which entails that 'each state of the world recurs infinitely many times 7 (Van Fraassen, 62), runs through the history of humanity as a scarlet thread. In Western civilizations, its heritage dates back to antiquity. 'Versions of this hypothesis existed among the pre-Socratics7 (Van Fraassen, 62) and allusions to its fundamental principle can be traced in Ovid, where it is an integral component of the poet's idea of metamorphosis: In all creation, be assured, There is no death, but, only change And innovation; what we men call birth Is but a different new beginning; death Is but to cease to be the same. (Ovid XV, 257-261, 359) In the nineteenth century, Nietzsche fervently supported this theory into which, in modern times, philosophical speculations and scientific contributions, especially in the field of cosmology, tend to merge.38 Within the sphere of Eastern spirituality (e.g. Buddhism and Hinduism), the idea of the transmigration of the soul in an almost perpetual circle of deaths and rebirths, the 'wheel of time7, which can be escaped through enlightenment alone, articulates a similar notion.39 Like other authors of his generation, Hesse takes his cue from both the Eastern and Western traditions, to which his imagery such as the water cycle is indebted. 40 Thematically, the idea of repetition and circularity plays a crucial role in T. S. Eliot's Four quartets where, on a linguistic level, the poet also makes extensive use of parallelisms and symmetrical structures. Notably, the incipit of 'East Coker7 (1940) reads 'In my beginning is my end', and the section concludes with 'In my end is my beginning7 . Images of circles and spirals held a strong fascination too for W.B.Yeats, 37 Circularity has been associated with eternity since antiquity: 'Aristotle argues [...] that only circular motion can be eternal' (Van Fraassen, 15). 38 'The best-known nineteenth-century proponent of the theory was Friedrich Nietzsche' (Van Fraassen, 62). Minimalist music, which originated in the early 1960s, draws on the repetition and iteration of motifs and musical cells. 39 To be sure, the border between the two traditions is not water-tight since, especially in the case of Buddhism, the Orient has influenced the Western perspective on eternal return. 40 The Brothers Karamazov, where the concept of eternal return is hinted at in Chapter 9 of Part 4 (Book XI), has to be mentioned as a possible source for both Nietzsche and Hesse, whose Blick ins Chaos includes a 1919 essay on Dostoevsky's novel:'Die Briider Karamasoff oder Der Untergang Europas: Einfa'lle bei der Lektiire Dostojewskijs' (GS VII, 161-178). Eliot greatly admired this essay. 149
as revealed by the opening line of 'The second coming' (1919) and the title of 'Winding stair' (1929). Sisyphus is weighed down not just by the boulder he has to carry uphill and then fetch once the rock has rolled down from the top, but also by the metaphysical weight of endless repetition, as portrayed in Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus (1942). The 'Ewigkeitssuppe' is Thomas Mann's curious and humorous symbol of eternal recurrence in Der Zauberberg (1924): Fur jetzt geniigt es, dafi jedermann sich erinnert, wie rasch eine Reihe, ja eine «lange» Reihe von Tagen vergeht, die man als Kranker im Bette verbringt: es ist immer derselbe Tag, der sich wiederholt; aber da es immer derselbe ist, so ist es im Grunde wenig korrekt, von «Wiederholung»zu sprechen; es sollte von Einerleiheit, von einem stehenden Jetzt oder von der Ewigkeit die Rede sein. Man bringt dir die Mittagssuppe, wie man sie dir gestern brachte und sie dir morgen bringen wird. Und in demselben Augenblick weht es dich an du weifit nicht, wie und woher; dir schwindelt, indes du die Suppe kommen siehst, die Zeitformen verschwimmen dir, rinnen ineinander, und was sich als wahre Form des Seins dir enthlillt, ist eine ausdehnungslose Gegenwart, in welcher man dir ewig die Suppe bringt. (Mann 1924, 243-44). Mann, like Camus and Nietzsche who, as registered in Chapter 4 (section 4), viewed history and memory as a burden, accumulates negative associations around the concept of eternal recurrence. To be sure, the idea retains negative connotations in both Buddhism and Hinduism, since the circle of incarnations appears as a yoke from which man seeks liberation. In this regard, Hesse oscillates between the pessimistic view shared by the three authors mentioned above and Ovid's more positive outlook. Siddhartha is Hesse's work where circularity is a central, if not founding, element, and not only because of its setting and ties with Buddhism and Hinduism. Circularity shapes the novel on several levels, and its images in both space and time are threaded intimately through the narrative:'Alles kommt wieder!', Vasudeva announces to Siddhartha,' Auch du, Samana, wirst wiederkommen" (SW 4, 405). The river is the hub of Siddhartha's peregrinations as noted by Shaw: 'Yet as he gazes upon the river, recalling the enthusiasm with which he had crossed it years before, Siddhartha remembers that the ferryman had predicted his return to this very spot' (214). Moritz stresses that repetition informs the rhythm of Hesse's style in this text (see Chapter 2, section 2). 150
- Page 105 and 106: individuationis—accepting his lim
- Page 107 and 108: Singen oder Summen oder auch nur da
- Page 109 and 110: die Erden und Sterne harmonisch im
- Page 111 and 112: in the euphoria of the 'Maskenball'
- Page 113 and 114: Chapter 4 Memory, metamorphosis, an
- Page 115 and 116: Hesse's approach to memory and the
- Page 117 and 118: Hesse's main characters who, almost
- Page 119 and 120: ich sah mich wahrend der ganzen Vor
- Page 121 and 122: with music, which would eventually
- Page 123 and 124: correlative' of childhood in Hesse.
- Page 125 and 126: equally pressing desire to release
- Page 127 and 128: mit Entsetzen erinnerte ich mich an
- Page 129 and 130: Hesse ascribes his fascination with
- Page 131 and 132: weigert sich, es will sich haufig a
- Page 133 and 134: exceptions (see the myth of Pygmali
- Page 135 and 136: internalized and replaced by transf
- Page 137 and 138: to India ('Erinnerung an Mwamba').
- Page 139 and 140: there are occasions when we experie
- Page 141 and 142: Beschreibung einiger Augenblicke ku
- Page 143 and 144: In the first place, time is no long
- Page 145 and 146: Beja underlines that, for both Berg
- Page 147 and 148: Karalaschwili refers to as the 'Zei
- Page 149 and 150: (unity, memory, and music) merge in
- Page 151 and 152: of Hesse's personal creed as well a
- Page 153 and 154: Nichts war, nichts wird sein; alles
- Page 155: The complex symbol of the river in
- Page 159 and 160: While Mann's image of endless repet
- Page 161 and 162: Glasperlenspiel). Clearly, 'authori
- Page 163 and 164: spread very rapidly to the human sc
- Page 165 and 166: poetic world: the metaphor of the s
- Page 167 and 168: Verwandlungen, Goethe and Mozart-Pa
- Page 169 and 170: und die Worte waren kleine schwarme
- Page 171 and 172: After dealing with the rather probl
- Page 173 and 174: greater foe than emotion' (Bergson,
- Page 175 and 176: of experience may be arbitrary and
- Page 177 and 178: identified by Ziolkoski (see Chapte
- Page 179 and 180: Rad (1905-1906) is a noticeable exc
- Page 181 and 182: however, the dualism of 'ideal' and
- Page 183 and 184: 'Witzbold und frechen Bettler' (SW
- Page 185 and 186: from their own creation through an
- Page 187 and 188: observed in Chapter 3 (section 2),
- Page 189 and 190: works, and the motif (the mirroring
- Page 191 and 192: hinein: Kindergesichter sufi und er
- Page 193 and 194: As noted above (6.1) that the last
- Page 195 and 196: Mozart play practical jokes on Harr
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- Page 199 and 200: The various sections do not [...] r
- Page 201 and 202: Modernist distance from the norms o
- Page 203 and 204: concludes that what might seem a sh
- Page 205 and 206: Jahren war ich nicht mehr in dem sc
as revealed by the opening line of 'The second coming' (1919) and the title of<br />
'Winding stair' (1929). Sisyphus is weighed down not just by the boulder he has to<br />
carry uphill and then fetch once the rock has rolled down from the top, but also by<br />
the metaphysical weight of endless repetition, as portrayed in Camus' The Myth of<br />
Sisyphus (1942). The 'Ewigkeitssuppe' is Thomas Mann's curious and humorous<br />
symbol of eternal recurrence in Der Zauberberg (1924):<br />
Fur jetzt geniigt es, dafi jedermann sich erinnert, wie rasch eine Reihe, ja eine<br />
«lange» Reihe von Tagen vergeht, die man als Kranker im Bette verbringt: es<br />
ist immer derselbe Tag, der sich wiederholt; aber da es immer derselbe ist, so<br />
ist es im Grunde wenig korrekt, von «Wiederholung»zu sprechen; es sollte<br />
von Einerleiheit, von einem stehenden Jetzt oder von der Ewigkeit die Rede<br />
sein. Man bringt dir die Mittagssuppe, wie man sie dir gestern brachte und sie<br />
dir morgen bringen wird. Und in demselben Augenblick weht es dich an<br />
du weifit nicht, wie und woher; dir schwindelt, indes du die Suppe kommen<br />
siehst, die Zeitformen verschwimmen dir, rinnen ineinander, und was sich als<br />
wahre Form des Seins dir enthlillt, ist eine ausdehnungslose Gegenwart, in<br />
welcher man dir ewig die Suppe bringt. (Mann 1924, 243-44).<br />
Mann, like Camus and Nietzsche who, as registered in Chapter 4 (section 4), viewed<br />
history and memory as a burden, accumulates negative associations around the<br />
concept of eternal recurrence. To be sure, the idea retains negative connotations in<br />
both Buddhism and Hinduism, since the circle of incarnations appears as a yoke<br />
from which man seeks liberation. In this regard, Hesse oscillates between the<br />
pessimistic view shared by the three authors mentioned above and Ovid's more<br />
positive outlook. Siddhartha is Hesse's work where circularity is a central, if not<br />
founding, element, and not only because of its setting and ties with Buddhism and<br />
Hinduism. Circularity shapes the novel on several levels, and its images in both<br />
space and time are threaded intimately through the narrative:'Alles kommt wieder!',<br />
Vasudeva announces to Siddhartha,' Auch du, Samana, wirst wiederkommen" (SW<br />
4, 405). The river is the hub of Siddhartha's peregrinations as noted by Shaw: 'Yet as<br />
he gazes upon the river, recalling the enthusiasm with which he had crossed it years<br />
before, Siddhartha remembers that the ferryman had predicted his return to this very<br />
spot' (214). Moritz stresses that repetition informs the rhythm of Hesse's style in this<br />
text (see Chapter 2, section 2).<br />
150
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