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

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('Die Briider Karamasoff; GS VII, 165). 13 The gap or distance between opposites is a source of knowledge and insight for Hesse, whose detachment from writing, which he juxtaposes with painting, at the end of 1920s helped him become a better writer. 14 Das Malen veranderte Hesses Schreiben. Durch Reflexionen der Tatigkeit in einem andern Medium wandelte sich seine Wahrnehmung. Hesse gewann mittels Malerei »allmahlich eine Distanz« zur Literatur, wie er in einem Brief an Georg Reinhart vom 5. Juni 1924 schrieb. Abschliefiend resiimierte Hesse: »Als Dichter ware ich ohne das Malen nicht so weit gekommen«. 15 (Gommen, 47) A second point is that while the distinction between man and woman, or the succession of day and night and the consequent contrast between light and darkness, are grounded in the objective reality of nature, the clash between such categories as 'good7 and 'evil 7 springs from the mind. 16 Hesse, who seeks to portray the abolition of the gap between the external world and the inner reality of the self, is not inclined to differentiate between polarities inherent in the reality of natural phenomena and those generated in the mind. His narrators and characters tend to internalize external antitheses (see 1.4 on "magical thinking') and regard contrasts in nature as manifestations of the dichotomies in their personalities. In Demian, for example, the spheres encompassed by 'light' and 'dark' have strong moral overtones. This is stressed by Gommen: Die zwei Welten stehen sich polar gegeniiber. Sie bilden Gegenwelten mit diametralen ethischen Grundsatzen. Die Zuordnung basiert auf moralischen Mafistaben, welche nicht natiirlich generiert, sondern von Menschen als solche konzipiert wurden. (22) An important consequence of this epistemological premise is that polar opposites are interdependent and complementary. Hesse, as a man, had to face up to the fact that, 13 'Die Briider Karamasoff oder Der Untergang Europas: Einfalle bei der Lekture Dostojewskijs' (1919). Hesse's statement echoes Goethe's: 'Was in die Erscheinung tritt, muB sich trennen, um nur zu erscheinen' (cited in Gores, 98). 14 Hesse's interest in painting dates back to the time of his therapeutic sessions with Dr J. B. Lang in 1917. The disciple of Jung invited Hesse to start painting his dreams along with self-portraits in an attempt to connect the writer with his unconscious (See Arzeni, 98-99). 15 The letter cited is from Hermann Hesse als Maler, ed. by V. Michels (Frankfurt a. M: Suhrkamp, 2002), p. 110. 16 Categories such as 'day' and 'night' entail some level of abstraction too, since these are distilled mental images of phenomena, the boundaries of which fluctuate on the real-life plan as in the intermediate phases of dawn and dusk. I believe, however, that the distinction between polarities rooted in the more objective plan of nature and those entirely generated from the mind is still tenable. 19
paradoxically, his personal 'freedom' was in direct relation to the degree of his 'renunciation': 'Wie jeder mufite ich das Plus an personlicher Freiheit, das ich mir nahm, teils durch Verzichte und Entbehrungen bezahlen, teils aber durch erhohte Leistung' (my emphasis). 17 Hesse's character Harry Haller, torn between transcendence and immanence is eventually led to realize that "Transcendenz" gains its main value from the pull of "Immanenz"' (Hollis 1973,119). 18 By implication, then, each pole is as important as its opposite: [EJine Polaritat [besteht] keineswegs aus sich ganzlich fremden Elementen, sondern - so andersartig diese auf den ersten Blick auch scheinen mogen - aus zusammengehorigen, wesensverwandten Teilaspekten. Eine Wertung und Hierarchisierung findet nicht statt. Die Pole einer Polaritat sind paritatisch. 19 (Gommen, 31) Particularly relevant to my discussion (see 5.4) are those polarities involving space-time coordinates such as 'past' and 'present', 'life' and 'death', 'protestant northern Europe' and its mainly 'catholic south', or the antithesis between the 'technology-driven West' and the 'spiritual Far East', as Hesse notes in 'Erinnerung an Asien' (1914): 'Der ganze Osten atmet Religion, wie der Westen Vernunft und Technik atmet (KF, 110-11). 20 Most polarities also entail a temporal succession. Siddhartha plunges into the world of senses after his long spiritual training, which proved deficient, and returns to follow his saintly route when he is jaded with sensuality. Moreover, although polar opposites complement each other, they cannot be fully experienced at the same time: nirgends war Einatmen und Ausatmen, Mannsein und Weibsein, Freiheit und Ordnung, Trieb und Geist gleichzeitig zu erleben, immer mufite man das eine mit dem Verlust des anderen bezahlen. (NuG, SW 4, 475) In other words, Hesse's characters cannot experience 'unity' except for those sudden, fleeting moments of 'awakening' during which opposites temporarily overlap, as in 17 'An Herrn T.G.M. Glatz', letter of 9 August 1929 (GS VII, 487). 18 See considerations on the finale of Der Steppenwolf included in 3.3 and 3.4. 19 '[I]mmer war das eine [ein Pol des Lebens] so wichtig und begehrenswert wie das andere!' (NuG, SW 4, 475). 20 Hesse illustrates the polarization of the points of the compass south / north in the first lines of 'Kirchen und Kapellen im Tessin' (1920): 'Zu den Zaubern des Sudens, die den protestantischen Nordla'nder in den Gegenden siidlich der Alpen begrUBen, gehort auch der Katholizismus' (KM, 198). 20
Page 1 and 2: HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF
Page 3 and 4: Chapter 5 Eternity_________________
Page 5 and 6: Declaration The discussion on Tablo
Page 7 and 8: Abstract This thesis explores Herma
Page 9 and 10: century onwards.4 The discussion on
Page 11 and 12: An interest in eternity is not Hess
Page 13 and 14: die Zeit fur mich hat, wie ich die
Page 15 and 16: Menschen ihres fruhesten Lebens eri
Page 17 and 18: subject and countersubject in the l
Page 19 and 20: Finally, dates of publication have
Page 21 and 22: This chapter explores this intrigui
Page 23 and 24: und Du, Freund und Feind, Tier und
Page 25: Karalaschwili accounts for this pas
Page 29 and 30: As Boulby perceptively notes, chara
Page 31 and 32: [D]ie Legende [1st] jene Literaturf
Page 33 and 34: the other hand, he is convinced tha
Page 35 and 36: ejection entails an act of the mind
Page 37 and 38: his way to enlightenment, is attune
Page 39 and 40: 'Fifty year old Harry Haller [...]
Page 41 and 42: eal self is transferred onto pairs
Page 43 and 44: consideration. 55 Clearly, any aspe
Page 45 and 46: This chapter, which is the necessar
Page 47 and 48: In the twentieth century, the adven
Page 49 and 50: 609). 14 Klingsor even calls on the
Page 51 and 52: This conception of music, reflected
Page 53 and 54: eproducing the soloist's frenzy, in
Page 55 and 56: Spafi'). A further point we drew at
Page 57 and 58: they revolve around a common 'home
Page 59 and 60: More recent literary employment of
Page 61 and 62: In the chapter 'Erwachen', after hi
Page 63 and 64: 'modulated' and developed, identify
Page 65 and 66: movements of a tripartite sonata. M
Page 67 and 68: In addition, Hesse's main character
Page 69 and 70: Drin eins das andre halt, Zeigen si
Page 71 and 72: Klange alle wie die Stimme der Mutt
Page 73 and 74: father, soul and spirit. 59 To Gold
Page 75 and 76: evolution of his connections to mus
Page 77 and 78:
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
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In the first place, time is no long
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Beja underlines that, for both Berg
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Karalaschwili refers to as the 'Zei
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(unity, memory, and music) merge in
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of Hesse's personal creed as well a
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Nichts war, nichts wird sein; alles
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The complex symbol of the river in
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as revealed by the opening line of
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While Mann's image of endless repet
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Glasperlenspiel). Clearly, 'authori
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spread very rapidly to the human sc
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poetic world: the metaphor of the s
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Verwandlungen, Goethe and Mozart-Pa
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und die Worte waren kleine schwarme
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After dealing with the rather probl
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greater foe than emotion' (Bergson,
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of experience may be arbitrary and
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identified by Ziolkoski (see Chapte
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Rad (1905-1906) is a noticeable exc
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however, the dualism of 'ideal' and
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'Witzbold und frechen Bettler' (SW
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from their own creation through an
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observed in Chapter 3 (section 2),
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works, and the motif (the mirroring
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hinein: Kindergesichter sufi und er
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As noted above (6.1) that the last
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Mozart play practical jokes on Harr
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superior wit. Furthemore, Mozart's
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The various sections do not [...] r
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Modernist distance from the norms o
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concludes that what might seem a sh
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Jahren war ich nicht mehr in dem sc
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irths and deaths, as portrayed in '
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Salvages' V; 1944, 30), as one of h
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HERMANN HESSE, Bibliography Betrach
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'Chapter 6: Siddhartha: The Way Wit
Page 215 and 216:
Kilchenmann, Ruth J., 'Hermann Hess
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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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