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

employment of irony, a wider concept emerges during the Romantic period, when
'what had been only a vehicle for linguistic ambiguity [...] turns into an exciting
epistemological instrument perfectly suited to handling the ambivalences of the
universe' (Furst, 34). This notion, known as Romantic irony, is generally ascribed to
Friedrich Schlegel, who developed the concept taking his cue from Fichte, as Hesse
too observes in the epistolary section of Hermann Lauscher, Tagebuch 1900': 'Ich weifi
wohl, das [die Ironie] ist Romantik. Das ist Fichte in Schlegel, Schlegel in Tieck und
Tieck ins Moderne ubersetzt' (SW 1, 312).31 Romanticism transformed irony into a
multilayered concept, rooted in the contrast between 'Wirklichkeit' and 'Ideal', the
far-reaching implications of which extend from epistemology to ethics, although the
main focus of the Romantic reflection was, however, eminently aesthetic.
As opposed to authors of the Classical period of German literature, Romantics
believed that not even art could bridge the rift between ideal and reality.32 The
Romantic idea of 'irony' stems precisely from the realisation that '[ajbsolute
Vollendung ist nur im Tode' (Schlegel, 131); consequently, through their irony,
Romantics acknowledge the impossibility of the portrayal of an ideal unity in their
works: 'Sie [Ironie] bedeutet eine Absage an die asthetische Utopie - an den Traum
von Vollkommenheit, der im Bild der Kunst alle Dissonanzen aufgehoben sehen
mochte' (Strohschneider-Kohrs, 88).33 The immediate corollary of such an 'Absage' is
'eine Einschrankung und Modifikation der Empfindung, eine kritische Bewufitheit'
(Strohschneider-Kohrs, 87). Artists must be aware of the limits of their own work
and, therefore, keep a tight rein on their creativity. They have to detach themselves
31 For a discussion on the origin of Romantic irony, see also Strohschneider-Kohrs (75-97), Schultz (371-372),
and Pirandello who, like Hesse, gives visibility to Tieck's contribution to the development of the concept (see p.
9). Ironically, as Furst points out, without however refuting F. Schlegel's paternity of the concept 'the term does
not occur in any of his writings published during his lifetime, nor indeed in those of his fellow Romantiker. (29)
[...] [Y]ou will not find 'romantische Ironie' except in three entries in Friedrich Schlegel's private Literary
Notebooks which were not deciphered and published until 1957 (by Hans Eichner)' (30). In Hesse's works too,
'Ironie' and its derivatives do not crop up often either, and the word does not occur at all in works such as Knulp,
Klingsors letzter Sommer, Siddhartha, and Narzifi undGoldmund.
32 Although the contrast between ideal and reality is key to the development of Romantic irony, it was not just
Romantics who elaborated on this opposition. In his Uber naive undsentimentalische Dichtung (1795), Schiller
classified poetry as elegiac, satirical, or idyllic, according to the relation between ideal and reality as portrayed in
a given work.
33 A further implication of the Romantic standpoint is that the awareness of lack of unity, implicit in the
unattainable reconciliation of opposites, is reflected in the work of art, the nature of which now tends to become
fragmentary.
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