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

to Hesse and, more precisely, to the sections of the 'Maskenball' and 'Magisches
Theater7, where a carnival in miniature is 'staged' and where even temporality is in
danger of being overturned Haller is, indeed, offered the opportunity to overcome
• •
time ('Uberwindung der Zeit'; SW 4,166) through its transformation into space (see
discussion in Chapter 5, section 4). 16 By entering the various theatre booths, Haller
takes part in a series of events, culminating in an illusory murder, that lead him to
drastically reconsider his beliefs. However, all the subversive potential of the night in
the Masked Ball and Magic Theatre appears to be dispelled at dawn, as at the end of
carnival.
6.2 Evolution of Hesse's 'Humor7
While studies on humour try to identify a common denominator, its appreciation is
ultimately a subjective matter. We might well understand a joke but not find it
amusing (e.g. we perceive it as offensive). 17 As obvious as it may seem, 'the life
experience of an individual', Raskin notes, 'is an important factor. What made me
laugh 20 years ago may fail now' (4). Moreover, people try to make others laugh with
what made them laugh in the first place; therefore, not only the reception, but also
the production of humour is dependent on personal taste which, steeped in the social
context, evolves with time. 18 Time is therefore a factor that needs to be taken into
account when investigating a person's sense of humour.
As far as Hesse is concerned, Ziolkowski traces a trajectory of the evolution of
Hesse's 'Humor7 which parallels the major changes in Hesse's musical taste, as
16 Underlining the analogy between 'KarnevaP and the 'Maskenball', Karalaschwili highlights the dialectical
character of both: 'Erstens darf man nicht auBer acht lassen, daB der Maskenball, gleich dem Karneval, einen
prinzipiell ambivalenten Zwei-Pol Charakter hat, wo Unten und Oben, Tod und Geburt, HaB und Liebe auf
unmittelbarste Weise zusammenhangen' (176).
17 Douglas stresses that while laughter might arise from humour, the lack of it does not necessarily indicate the
absence of the latter: 'One can appreciate a joke without actually laughing, and one can laugh for other reasons
than from having perceived a joke' (148).
18 Douglas highlights the importance of the social sphere in the individual appreciation of humour by pointing
out that 'the social dimension enters at all levels into the perception of a joke. Even its typical patterning depends
on a social valuation of the elements' (151). She goes further and affirms that 'all jokes are expressive of the
social situations in which they occur' (152). Like humour, laughter is socially determined: 'laughter is just as
much a culturally determined phenomenon as humour' (Bremmer and Roodenburg, 3).
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