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

chapter 'The Logic of Laughter7 (27-55), according to which humour springs from the
unexpected association of two 'previously unconnected' (45) patterns or, as he puts
it, 'matrices of experience' (ibid.).
The descriptions of humour given above show a common dialectical
foundation. 11 Humour brings together two disparate, or even opposite, elements
(thesis and antithesis), be they patterns, strands of thought, or scripts, and make
them clash and coalesce (synthesis) for a fraction of time. 12 The dialectical dynamic of
humour, which is apparent in the pun, is also key to the concept of Romantic irony as
well as to Hesse's idea of 'Humor', both rooted in the dichotomy between ideal and
reality (see section 6.3). 13
As noted above, it is generally assumed that humour retains traces of violent
instincts. This ancestral hostility has a further sociological implication, for humour
can be seen as an outlet for subversive energy. In a perspective influenced by both
Bergson and Freud, Mary Douglas highlights the destabilising effect of humour in
the private sphere: 'the essence of the joke is that something formal is attacked by
something informal, something organised and controlled, by something vital,
energetic' (149). She takes her point further and suggests that humour can trigger
unexpected associations, leading individuals to question a learnt behaviour and
inciting them to new possibilities, although humour does not ultimately bring about
any real change:
The joke merely affords opportunity for realising that an accepted pattern has
no necessity. Its excitement lies in the suggestion that any particular ordering
11 Although Neil Schaeffer presents 'context as the definitive feature of laughter' (2), he later integrates the
dialectical component discussed above by pointing out: 'juxtaposition of incongruous elements appears to
contain a significance even if we are unable or unwilling to state precisely what it is' (7).
12 In this context, it is worth stressing the link between humour and the 'fleeting', as common experience
suggests in connection with the readiness required in the delivery of a verbal joke. The preparation stage of a
joke accumulates expectancy on the listener's part that it is suddenly neutralized or dissipated a second after the
punch-line has triggered the laughter. Humour therefore appears associated with the 'moment' on the one
hand although in the specific case of a joke and, at least for Hesse, to eternity on the other.
13 As underlined by Brown and Ziolkowski (see note 38 in Chapter 2, section 4), a pun is also evocative of the
technique of the counterpoint, through which two independent musical lines are woven together to form one
coherent, and comprehensible, musical idea. It should be noted that Hesse uses the word 'Humor' sparingly. The
expression, for instance, does not crop up in Knulp, Demian, Klingsors letzter Sommer, or Siddhartha. This fact
is not surprising with regard to Demian and Siddhartha, which Ziolkowski describes as devoid of humour (see
below in this section), but it does surprise one in relation to Klingsors letzter Sommer where, as Diirr notes,
'fmdet sich eine eigentumliche, gefahrvolle Ironic ein, die hochstens in einen verganglichen Galgenhumor
ausartet' (42). Henceforth, we will refer to Hesse's specific idea of humour with the German 'Humor'.
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