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

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the process of recollection, which bridges the distance between present and past (see sections 4.6 on epiphany and 5.2 on simultaneity). 21 Polarities are not hierarchically structured, and boundaries between opposites are fluid. 22 None of the contrasts (life-death, transience-eternity, masculine-feminine, ideal-reality, or good-evil) in Hesse's work appear to be of prime significance; in some cases, they seem to be interlinked as in a long semantic chain: the contrast between 'light' and 'dark' stands as a metaphor for 'life' and 'death', or for 'good' and 'evil'; 'ideal' and 'reality' reflect the contrast between 'immanence' and 'transcendence'. 'Freedom' and 'order' resonate in the polarisation of 'feminine' and 'masculine', as well as the related 'maternal' and 'paternal'. Polarities are not fixed either. Different terms can be juxtaposed and brought into comparison with each other: 'Geist' and its connotations (e.g. masculine, spiritual, rational) are often contrasted with 'Seele' (feminine, sensual, irrational); yet 'Gesetz' is the main term of comparison for 'Geist' in Unterm Rad (see Stolte, 48). Im Bezug auf die Konstituenten des Gesamtwerks Hesses handelt es sich um dynamische Polaritaten. So lassen sich Lyrik und Prosa gegeniiberstellen, beide zusammen konnen jedoch auch einen Gegenpol zu Hesses nichtfiktionalem Schaffen bilden, alle drei einen Gegenpol zur Malerei. (Gommen, 48) Finally, as with the works of Goethe, a number of Hesse's characters, drawn in couples, embody opposite tendencies: was im eigenen Inneren als spannungsvoller Widerspruch, als Polaritat eines und desselben Charakters empfunden wird, zerlegt sich im gestalteten Werk in zwei polarisch einander zugleich widersprechende und erganzende Personen. Hier sind es Hans Giebenrath und Hermann Heilner, spater werden es Klein und Wagner, Narzifi und Goldmund und manche andere Personifizierungen sein. 23 (Stolte, 44) 21 In Goethe too polarities unfold chronologically, as emerges from An Schwager Kronos, which hinges on images of ascent and descent, and Gesang der Geister tiber den Wassern, with its central theme and metaphor of the water cycle. 22 'Polarita't [ist] kein starres Konstrukt, sondern ein Perpetuum mobile' (Gommen, 35). 23 In the context of Das Glasperlenspiel, Diirr observes 'in den beiden [Knecht und Plinio] verkb'rpern sich zwei verschiedene Welten' (96). Referring to those narrative figures in Goethe's oeuvre who are the incarnation of opposite inclinations (e.g. Clavigo and Carlos, Tasso and Antonio, Werther and Albert), Gores similarly points out: 'Einzelne Gestalten sind in sich polaren Gegensatzen ausgeliefert [...] Goethe selber [fuhlte] zwei Seelen in sich [...], aber solches »Doppelwesen« in den meisten Fallen seiner dramatischen und epischen Dichtung in zwei Figuren auffa'cherte' (107). 21
As Boulby perceptively notes, characters may also provide a comparison in terms of more than one quality, as if multiple opposite inclinations and appetites were infused into them: In the figures of Narziss and Goldmund are caught many contrasts, that between the priest and thinker, and the artist and Don Juan; that between the homosexual and the heterosexual; the hermetic opposition between animus and anima. (234) 1.3 Paradoxes The fluidity and flexibility of polarities in Hesse, as suggested in the previous section, create ambivalent positions and statements which, in certain cases, verge on paradox and apparent contradictions. 'Gesetz', not 'Seele', is the main term of comparison of 'Geist' in the context of Unterm Rad, where 'law' is imbued with negative connotations (e.g. narrow-minded views and stifling rigour). However, 'law' has diametrically opposed connotations, especially in Hesse's later works, where it is associated with 'order' and, ironically, with 'Geist' too. '[Ljaw', for Hesse, is always an ambiguous term, it may refer to the sublime patterns of the Glass Bead Game, the epitome of 'spirit' and of form, but it may also be weighted with the dross of the common world, of society which constantly strives, through the mechanism of convention, to give itself the appearance of truth and permanence. (Boulby, 59) Similar ambiguities can sporadically be detected in Hesse's private documents. The influence that Romanticism exerted on his artistic development is well documented, and Hesse acknowledged this debt, defending Romanticism against its detractors, as he does, for example, in 'Eine Arbeitsnacht' (1928): Warum denn ist Romantik etwas Minderwertiges? War Romantik nicht das, was die besten Geister Deutschlands getrieben haben, die Novalis, Holderlin, Brentano, Morike, und alle deutschen Musiker von Beethoven iiber Schubert bis Hugo Wolf. 24 (SW 12,125) 24 Aspects of the Romantic legacy in connection with music will be discussed in Chapter 3, especially section 3. 22
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 and 26: Karalaschwili accounts for this pas
Page 27: paradoxically, his personal 'freedo
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
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Kilchenmann, Ruth J., 'Hermann Hess
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Theodorou, Panagiota, '«Das leiden
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Debord, Guy, The society of the spe
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Mann, Thomas, Doktor Faustus: das L
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Volkmann-Schluck, Karl H., 'Novalis
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Schmidt, Richard A.; Lee, Timothy D
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HERMANN HESSE AND THE DIALECTICS OF TIME Salvatore C. P. ...

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