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

with Haller and introduces Haller/s manuscript (second focalisation) which, in turn,
includes a third perspective, that of the Tractat vom Steppenwolf (SW 4, 43).
Stewart, who describes the main 'process' of the novel as 'refraction 7, underlines the
modern and complex structure of Der Steppenwolf pointing out that '[i]nstead of one
authorial voice there are several distinct narrators, stressing the subjective and
multiple nature of experienced reality7 (84). 49 'Die drei Lebenslaufe' (SW 5, 409-516),
part of Knecht's 'hinterlassene Schriften 7 (SW 5, 395), suggest a similar employment
of the mirror motif on a narrative level in the context of Das Glasperlenspiel. Indeed,
the three biographies seem to portray the same psychological type but from different
angles and in different settings. 50
As noted in the preceding section (6.3), the mirror motif also resonates with
Hesse's use of self-irony, which is that particular type of 'self-reflection' which leads
his characters to be confronted with the cleavage between their real and ideal or
idealized self and to laugh at this discrepancy. In his account of his journey to
Nuremberg, Hesse notes:
ich kenne besser als irgendeiner den Zustand, in welchem das ewige Selbst in
uns dem sterblichen Ich zuschaut und seine Spriinge und Grimassen
begutachtet, voll Mitleid, voll Spott, voll Neutralitat. (NR, SW 11,164)
The next section will deal with a particular incarnation of the double and with their
humour and irony in the context of Der Steppenwolf.
6.5 Pablo and Mozart: Two faces of the same fool51
49 The process [of Der Steppenwolf] is refraction, picturing the multiplicity like light refracted in a sequence of
inter-relating mirrors' (Stewart, 85).
50 'In all three [biographies]', Boulby observes, 'there is present the idea ofimitatio', all are situated in an
essentially timeless, unhistorical world and all deal with some species of sainthood' (307). Although there is not
evidence to substantiate this affirmation, Hesse's use of the mirror motif on a narrative level suggests the he had
internalised and attempted to reproduce the multiplicity of perspectives that Cubism pursued. Karalaschwili
highlights the centrality of the theme of the mirror and motif of reflection for the 'Erzahlschluss' of Hesse's
novels: Tektonisch heben sich die SchluBszenen bei Hesse in der Regel von der ubrigen Handlung ab und
erinnern an jenen in den bildenden Kunsten ziemlich verbreiteten kompositorischen Kunstgriff, bei dem in den
Hauptraum des Bildes ein kleineres Bild eingesetzt wird, das von Grundtext durch einen Rahmen abgehoben ist,
der die Form eines TUrspalts, eines Fensterrahmens oder eines Spiegels haben kann' (163).
51 This section draws on my article: The Unbearable Lightness of (Being) Mozart, or Mozart in Steppenwolf in
Mozart, eine Herausforderungfur Literatur undDenken: Mozart, a Challenge for Literature and Thought, ed.
by R. G6rner and C. McLaughlin (Bern; Frankfurt a. M.; New York: Lang, 2007), pp. 255-63.
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