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

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Shakespearean dramas. 53 Drawing on this discussion, the end of the section seeks to demonstrate that, even though 'Humor' is portrayed as a feature of the here and now in the Tract', Pablo's earthly quips are at one with Mozart's eternal laughter, by virtue of the similarities in their sarcastic remarks on Haller and also because of Haller's discovery, made at this turning point in the novel, that they are like two sides of the same coin. According to Douglas, a joker is an initiator, '[h]e is worth contrasting with persons undergoing rituals of transition, mourners and initiands' (159); and Haller certainly goes through an initiation process, where Pablo and Mozart play the role of master of ceremony. Douglas also adds: Perhaps the joker should be classed as a kind of minor mystic. Though only a mundane and borderline type, he is one of those people who pass beyond the bounds of reason and society and give glimpses of a truth which escapes though the mesh of structured concepts. Naturally he is only a humble, poor brother of the true mystic, for his insights are given by accident. (159) Although the 'insights' of Pablo and Mozart do not seem given 'by accident7, they both lay emphasis on unconventional truths; mental disorders such as insanity or schizophrenia are praised by Pablo as the beginning of wisdom and the main quality of an artist respectively. 54 Furthermore, Pablo appears to Harry as a young chess player at some point, sitting on the floor 'nach morgenlandischer Art' (SW 4,179) at his chessboard, conjuring up the idea of an Indian spiritualist. As Douglas observes, '[t]he joker as god promises a wealth of new, unforeseeable kinds of interpretation' (160), and Pablo, in the guise of the young chess player, shows Harry how to play with his 'selves', arranging the pieces facets and fragments of Haller's personality on the chessboard in order to achieve different combinations. Pablo and 53 Chapter 3 (section 4) focuses on the aesthetic ('high' and 'low' art) and spiritual consequences (eternity not only bestowed to individuals of extraordinary personal gifts), while Chapter 4 analyses this sudden transformation in the context of metamorphosis (section 5). Mary Douglas' definition of the 'joker' will provide the term of comparison for the paralles herein drawn with Pablo / Mozart. 54 'So wie die Verriicktheit, in einem hohern Sinn, der Anfang aller Weisheit ist, so ist Schizophrenic der Anfang aller Kunst, aller Phantasie' (SW 4, 181-82). The questioning of the boundaries between sanity and madness is a common trait in a large part of early twentieth-century literature. In Doktor Faustus, Zeitblom underscores the blurred confines of sanity in relation to the eccentric and extravagant habits of Ludwig II of Bavaria: 'Wahnsinn, so setzte ich auseinander, sei ein recht schwankender Begriff, den der SpieBbUrger allzu beliebig, nach zweifelhaften Kriterien, handhabe. sehr friih, ganz dicht bei sich selbst und seiner Gemeinheit, setze ein solcher die Grenze vernUnftigen Benehmens an, und was dariiber gehe, sei Narrheit' (Mann 1947, 430). 187
Mozart play practical jokes on Harry, jokes occasionally linked to the theme of death, such as Hermine's stabbing, or Mailer's bizarre execution; and, as Douglas points out the joke, working on its own materials, mimics a kind of death. Its form in itself suggests the theme of rebirth. It is no coincidence that practical jokes are common in initiation rites, along with more concrete expressions of dying and being reborn. (160) As with the character of the Shakespearean 'fool' (e.g. the Fool in King Lear, the Clown in Hamlet), who, protected by his role, can afford to voice discomforting truths couched in their (sometimes irreverent) jokes, Pablo and Mozart do not spare their flippant remarks: Sollte wirklich dieses schone Madchen von Ihnen nichts andres zu wiinschen gehabt haben als einen Messerstich? Machen Sie das einem andern weis! Na, wenigstens haben Sie brav zugestochen, das arme Kind ist mausetot.55 (SW 4, 200) Moreover, Mozart (as well as Pablo) maintains a sneering and irreverent attitude towards Harry in the Magic Theatre: He, mein Junge, beifit dich die Zunge, zwickt dich die Lunge? [...] O du glaubiges Herze, mit deiner Druckerschwarze, mit deinem Seelenschmerze, ich stifte dir eine Kerze, nur so zum Scherze.56 (SW 4,194) The Shakespearean 'fool7 and the pair Pablo / Mozart have a further feature in common: their mockery is often delivered with a play on words and riddles. While digging a grave, the Clown addresses Hamlet saying 'You lie out on't, sir, and therefore 'tis not yours. I For my part, I do not lie in't, and yet it is mine' (Hamlet V, 1,120-21, 383). Pablo teases Harry with sayings such as in 'Du kennst ja aber das alte weise Wort: ein Spiegelein in der Hand ist besser als zwei an der Wand. Haha! (Wieder lachte er so schon und schrecklich)' (SW 4,168). 55 '[The] freedom to indulge in parody and unexpected truth telling, and the additional freedom to be wantonly licentious without incurring blame are the two privileges of the fool which made it worth the while of normal men occasionally to assume his role' (Swain, 63). 56 The conspicuously disjunctive, rhythmic pattern of this nonsense, where the musical, phonetic aspects of the language gain ascendancy over the meaning, appears as the filiation from authors such as Tieck, Brentano, and E. T. A. Hoffmann. In Der goldene Topf, for instance, the speech of the first voice Anselmus hears coming from the elder bears similarities to Mozart's nonsensical riddle: 'Zwischen durch zwischen ein zwischen Zweigen, zwischen schwellenden Bliiten, schwingen, schlangeln, schlingen wir uns Schwesterlein Schwesterlein, schwinge dich im Schimmer schnell, schnell herauf herab' (E. T. A. Hoffmann, 5). 188
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HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF
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Chapter 5 Eternity_________________
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Declaration The discussion on Tablo
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Abstract This thesis explores Herma
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century onwards.4 The discussion on
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An interest in eternity is not Hess
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die Zeit fur mich hat, wie ich die
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Menschen ihres fruhesten Lebens eri
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subject and countersubject in the l
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Finally, dates of publication have
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This chapter explores this intrigui
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und Du, Freund und Feind, Tier und
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Karalaschwili accounts for this pas
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paradoxically, his personal 'freedo
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As Boulby perceptively notes, chara
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[D]ie Legende [1st] jene Literaturf
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the other hand, he is convinced tha
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ejection entails an act of the mind
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his way to enlightenment, is attune
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'Fifty year old Harry Haller [...]
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eal self is transferred onto pairs
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consideration. 55 Clearly, any aspe
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This chapter, which is the necessar
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In the twentieth century, the adven
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609). 14 Klingsor even calls on the
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This conception of music, reflected
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eproducing the soloist's frenzy, in
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Spafi'). A further point we drew at
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they revolve around a common 'home
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More recent literary employment of
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In the chapter 'Erwachen', after hi
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'modulated' and developed, identify
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movements of a tripartite sonata. M
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In addition, Hesse's main character
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Drin eins das andre halt, Zeigen si
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Klange alle wie die Stimme der Mutt
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father, soul and spirit. 59 To Gold
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evolution of his connections to mus
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Music means solace for Kuhn in Gert
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Furthermore, the erotic element of
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Hesse's penchant for 'klassische' (
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the aesthetic qualities of a piece
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creation is, for Hesse, the princip
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'Hesse had nothing against virtuosi
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undramatisch' (letter of 1898 to He
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As far as the formal plane is conce
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called 'absurd'. 53 The most conspi
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existence and the dismissal of any
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in that the former's opera paves th
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'Bine Arbeitsnacht' (1928), he poin
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debate on jazz but also by the Nazi
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catchy tunes threaten to drain art
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individuationis—accepting his lim
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Singen oder Summen oder auch nur da
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die Erden und Sterne harmonisch im
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in the euphoria of the 'Maskenball'
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Chapter 4 Memory, metamorphosis, an
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Hesse's approach to memory and the
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Hesse's main characters who, almost
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ich sah mich wahrend der ganzen Vor
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with music, which would eventually
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correlative' of childhood in Hesse.
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equally pressing desire to release
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mit Entsetzen erinnerte ich mich an
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Hesse ascribes his fascination with
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weigert sich, es will sich haufig a
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exceptions (see the myth of Pygmali
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internalized and replaced by transf
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to India ('Erinnerung an Mwamba').
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there are occasions when we experie
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Beschreibung einiger Augenblicke ku
Page 143 and 144: In the first place, time is no long
Page 145 and 146: Beja underlines that, for both Berg
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Page 149 and 150: (unity, memory, and music) merge in
Page 151 and 152: of Hesse's personal creed as well a
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Page 155 and 156: The complex symbol of the river in
Page 157 and 158: as revealed by the opening line of
Page 159 and 160: While Mann's image of endless repet
Page 161 and 162: Glasperlenspiel). Clearly, 'authori
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Page 165 and 166: poetic world: the metaphor of the s
Page 167 and 168: Verwandlungen, Goethe and Mozart-Pa
Page 169 and 170: und die Worte waren kleine schwarme
Page 171 and 172: After dealing with the rather probl
Page 173 and 174: greater foe than emotion' (Bergson,
Page 175 and 176: of experience may be arbitrary and
Page 177 and 178: identified by Ziolkoski (see Chapte
Page 179 and 180: Rad (1905-1906) is a noticeable exc
Page 181 and 182: however, the dualism of 'ideal' and
Page 183 and 184: 'Witzbold und frechen Bettler' (SW
Page 185 and 186: from their own creation through an
Page 187 and 188: observed in Chapter 3 (section 2),
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Page 191 and 192: hinein: Kindergesichter sufi und er
Page 193: As noted above (6.1) that the last
Page 197 and 198: superior wit. Furthemore, Mozart's
Page 199 and 200: The various sections do not [...] r
Page 201 and 202: Modernist distance from the norms o
Page 203 and 204: concludes that what might seem a sh
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Page 207 and 208: irths and deaths, as portrayed in '
Page 209 and 210: Salvages' V; 1944, 30), as one of h
Page 211 and 212: HERMANN HESSE, Bibliography Betrach
Page 213 and 214: 'Chapter 6: Siddhartha: The Way Wit
Page 215 and 216: Kilchenmann, Ruth J., 'Hermann Hess
Page 217 and 218: Theodorou, Panagiota, '«Das leiden
Page 219 and 220: Debord, Guy, The society of the spe
Page 221 and 222: Mann, Thomas, Doktor Faustus: das L
Page 223 and 224: Volkmann-Schluck, Karl H., 'Novalis
Page 225: Schmidt, Richard A.; Lee, Timothy D
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HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF TIME Salvatore C. P. ...

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