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

As will be emphasized in the next section (6.4), Romantic irony as well as self-
irony implies a process of 'reflection' that, in Hesse's works, is frequently conveyed
through the employment of a mirror, or other reflective element, in the fiction of the
plot. The short story 'Maler Brahm' (1906), where the protagonist's self-portrait
foreshadows Klingsor's 'Selbstbildnis' (see the next section, 6.4), offers an early
example of Hesse's use of self-irony in combination with the theme of the mirror:
Unter den Bildern, die er hinterliefi, war ein merkwurdiges Selbstportrat aus
seiner letzten Zeit. Ein griindlich und riicksichtslos studierter Kopf, hasslich
verwahrloste Ziige eines alternden Trinkers, leicht grinsend, und ein
unentschlossen trauriger Blick. Aus irgendeinem Grunde hatte Brahm jedoch
iiber das fertig ausgefuhrte, gewifi nicht ohne peinliche Selbstironie gemalte
Bild kreuzweis zwei dicke rote Pinselstriche gezogen. (SW 6, 528; my
emphasis)
6.4 The mirror
According to Schlegel's concept of irony, a work of art must trigger and include a
reflection upon itself. Schlegel signals this shift in perspective from the Classical
period of German literature referring to the Romantic work of art as Toesie der
Poesie' (135) and, taking his elaboration further, states that it is within the scope of
art 'diese Reflexion immer wieder [zu] potenzieren und wie in einer endlosen Reihe
von Spiegeln [zu] vervielfachen' (139). 44 Schlegel's postulate resonates with one of
Hesse's most frequengly recurring themes: 'the mirror'. From his early works (see
excerpt from 'Maler Brahm' above) to Joseph Knecht's reflections on the lake surface
in the last part of Das Glasperlenspiel (1943), mirrors, self-portraits, and fleeting
reflections on a surface especially water are a distinctive element of Hesse's
fiction. The purpose of this section is to illustrate various functions of the motif in
Hesse's works by providing examples of its different occurrences and manifestations.
As noted above, water is an element repeatedly associated with the theme of
the mirror (see Field, 1970, Chapter 8, section 4, para. 11 of 16) from Hesse's early
44 This new approach paved the way to the idea of the work of art as a self-referential system, the extreme
consequences of which were feared and highlighted by Jean Paul and Kierkegaard, among others.
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