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

If we follow the thread of the references above, we are inevitably led to reflect on the
significance of what Hesse describes as the transference of his own life into his
(main) characters. Artists draw on their personal lives for inspiration and material for
their work, in some cases projecting their inner discords onto the plane of art, in an
attempt to deal with them. Art can function as a form of therapy through which
artists seek answers to the conflicts in their lives. Hesse, who underwent
psychoanalysis (see note 14) and whose work was influenced by the psychoanalytic
theory, himself reminds us of this in a diary entry of 1920-1921: 'Die Funktion der
Kunst, soweit sie die Person des Kiinstlers selbst angeht, ware dann genau dasselbe
wie die Funktion der Beichte, oder der Psychoanalyse' ('Tagebuch 1920/1921', SW 11,
632).50 The idea of art as confession ('Beichte') resurfaces in the same diary entry in
the pairing of the autobiographical works of Augustine and Rousseau:
Man vergleiche die Konfessionen eines Heiligen mit denen eines Literaten, so
wird sofort der Unterschied klar: Augustinus und Rousseau. Der eine gibt sich
selbst preis, weil er sich Gott anheim gegeben hat: der andre rechtfertigt sich.
Vom gleichen Antrieb ausgehend, enden sie an genau entgegengesetzten
Polen: der eine beim Heiligen, der andre beim Dichter. 51 ('Tagebuch
1920/1921', SW11, 634)
By implication, then, Hesse brings together the act of creation with the moment of
confession; yet, as perceptively observed by Karalaschwili, 'confessions' do not only
aim to portray their authors as they are in real life, they also contrast them with their
ideal selves. In the case of Hesse, Karalaschwili argues, the tension between ideal and
Nenner - jene zentrale Figur - gebracht, von ihr aufgesaugt und dann auf den gesamten Erzahlraum ausgestrahlt
wird' (54).
50 Freedman corroborates Hesse's statement with regard to Der Steppenwolf. 'the writer transcends his illness by
writing'(1973, 179).
51 The idea of literature as a form of confession can be traced back to Romanticim, which began to regard a work
of art as 'the internal made external' (Abrams, 22) and laid great emphasis on the 'sincerity' and 'genuineness'
of an artist. As Abrams puts it: 'The work cease[d] to be regarded as primarily a reflection of nature, actual or
improved; the mirror held up to nature bec[ame] transparent and yield[ed] the reader insights into the mind and
heart of the poet himself. The exploitation of literature as an index to personality first manifested] itself in the
early nineteenth century; it [was] the inevitable consequence of the expressive point of view' (23). For their
prominence in the discourse on memory, the Confessions of Saint Augustine and those of Rousseau along with
psychoanalysis are also relevant to our discussion on 'memory' in Hesse (see introductory section of Chapter 4).
It also worth noting that both 'die «Bekenntnisse» des heiligen Augustin' (GS VII, 317) and 'die «Bekenntnisse»
von Rousseau' (320) are mentioned in 'Eine Bibliothek der Weltliteratur' (1929). Moreover, Weibel defines
Hesse as a 'Bekentnissdichter' (5).
33