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Romantic Imagination: Hermann Hesse as a Modern Novelist
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
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Hermann Hesse's debt to the romantic tradition is a critical commonplace. It is perhaps less often recognized that he is also a distinctly modern novelist. Hesse's modernity is not confined to his period of preoccupation with Jungian psychoanalysis or to his brush with expressionism in Der Steppenwolf and elsewhere. Nor is it exclusively a negative principle: a rejection of contemporary reality and a search for new values, as in the monastery of Narziss or in the futuristic-medieval Kastalien of Das Glasperlenspiel. Rather, in aesthetic and moral terms, Hesse's modernity is found in his manner of formulating romantic thought and techniques. His aesthetic sensibility recalls Novalis and Jean Paul, but his way of implementing this sensibility is representative of a contemporary attitude.
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References
1 Betrachtungen (Berlin: S. Fischer, 1928), pp. 172–173. Hesse's lyricism is stressed by Ernst R. Curtius who points out that Hesse desired neither aesthetic nor social ties but rather sought immediate self-expression. Hence, Curtius concludes, Hesse's works are lyrical rather than epic, for the world implied by the latter is absent in them (“Hermann Hesse,” Krilische Essays zur europäischen Literalur [Bern: A. Francke, 1950], pp. 212–213).
2 In Die Nürnberger Reise (1928), Hesse identifies the romantic spirit with an antimodern spirit and readily allies himself with it (Gesammelte Dichtungen [Berlin-Zürich: Suhrkamp Verlag, Fretz und Wasmuth Ver lag, 1952], iv, 128–129—hereafter cited as Dichtungen). Hesse's authoritative biographer, Hugo Ball, speaks of his subject as the “letzte Ritter aus dem glanzvollen Zuge der Romantik” (Hermann Hesse: Sein Leben und sein Werk [Berlin: S. Fischer, 1927], pp. 26–27.
3 Letter to Thomas Mann, 12 Dec. 1947 in Briefe (Berlin: Suhrkamp, 1951), pp. 269–270.
4 “Einleitung zu einer amerikanischen Demianausgabe,” Die Neue Rundschau (Summer 1947), p. 246. See Foreword, Demian (New York: Henry Holt, 1948 [written April 1947]), pp. vii–viii. Cf. Karl Schmid for a comparison of Hesse and Mann, in which the former is associated with the “soul” and the latter with rationalist humanism (Hermann Hesse und Thomas Mann [Olten: Vereinigung Oltner Bücherfreunde, 1950], pp. 31–40). A contrary view is suggested by George W. Field in a comparison of the uses of music in Hesse's Das Glasperlenspiel and Mann's Doktor Faustus. In this essay, Hesse's world view is defined in terms of a moral and aesthetic clarity of Geist, epitomized by Mozart's music, Knecht's mission, and the beatified Musikmeister, while Mann's position is viewed as emphasizing amoral, demonic forces of the subconscious epitomized by the devil of Doktor Faustus (“Music and Morality in Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse,” Univ. of Toronto Quart., xxiv [Jan. 1955], 175–190).
5 Neue Rundschau (1947), p. 248; Demian (New York), p. x.
6 Eine Bibliothek der Weltliteratur (Zürich: Werner Classen, 1945), pp. 40–48. For essays on Goethe, see, e.g., Dank an Goethe (Zürich: Werner Classen, 1946). For essays on Novalis, Jean Paul, Clemens Brentano, Bettina von Arnim, and Hölderlin, see Betrachtungen, pp. 175–223. See also Hesse's anthology, Eduard Mörike, Deutsche Lyriker, viii (Leipzig: Hesse und Becker, 1911).
7 Hesse readily admits the influence of Maeterlinck on his first prose work, but claims that he had not read George's Hirtengedichte until a few months later. In fact, he suggests in retrospect that his reluctance about aestheticism in Hermann Lauscher can be attributed not only to doubts about Maeterlinck's self-enclosed form but also to his rejection of the preciosity and egocentricity which, to his mind, were involved in the cult surrounding Stefan George (“Geleitwort,” Eine Stunde hinler Milternacht, 2nd ed. [Zürich: Fretz und Wasmuth, 1941], pp. 9–11).
8 Ibid., p. 11. For criticisms of the aesthetic point of view, see the discussions between Lauscher and Drehdichum in “Lulu,” Hermann Lauscher (Miinchen: Albert Langen, 1920), pp. 102–112. For Lauscher's martyrdom in the service of beauty, see also pp. 189–190.
9 Hesse remarked that Gottfried Keller's technique demonstrates conspicuously many romantic traits (Hermann Lauscher, p. 195).
10 For a brief summary of Hesse's work in his first two periods, including his themes and models, see Joseph Mileck, “The Prose of Hermann Hesse: Life, Substance, and Form,” GQ, xxvii (May 1954), 165–166.
11 The immediate product of the journey to India was A us Indien: Aufzeichnungen einer indischen Reise (Berlin: S. Fischer, 1913).
12 See Ball, pp. 156–160. Cf. Edmund Gnefkow, Hermann Hesse: Biographie 1952 (Freiburg i. Br.: Gerhard Kirchhoff, 1952), p. 40.
13 See Max Schmid, Hermann Hesse: Weg und Wandlung (Zurich: Fretz und Wasmuth, 1947), for a full discussion of Hesse's use of polarities. Cf. Peter Heller, “The Creative Unconscious and the Spirit: A Study of Polarities in Hesse's Image of the Writer,” MLF, xxxviii (March–June 1953), 28–40.
14 See Hans R. Schmid, Hermann Hesse. Die Schweiz im deutschen Geistesleben, ed. Harry Maync, lvi–lvii (Frauenfeld-Leipzig: Huber, 1928), 127–150.
15 Berlin: S. Fischer, 1931 (includes Siddhartha, “Klingsors letzter Sommer,” “Klein und Wagner,” and “Kinderseele”); Bern: Seldwyla, 1920 (contains two essays on Dostoyevsky).
16 See e.g., Die Nürnberger Reise, Dichtungen, iv, 165–166. Hereafter, unless otherwise identified, parenthetical volume and page numbers in the text will refer to Dichtungen.
17 See Hesse's remark in Die Nürnberger Reise that poetry (an intuitive, sensual apprehension of the world) must lead to “Streit und Zerfall mit der Wirklichkeit” (Dichtungen, iv, 149).
18 For an analysis of Narziss und Goldmund from this point of view, see Max Schmid, W und W, pp. 96–125.
19 This explains the dual conflict which is so often seen in Hesse, that is, the conflict of the self with the external world and the conflict within the self. As the self seeks to absorb the world the two oppositions coincide. Cf. Heller, pp. 28 f.
20 “Das Ich muß sich als darstellend setzen. ... [d.h.] daß nicht das Objekt (qua solches), sondern das Ich, als Grund der Tätigkeit, die Tätigkeit bestimmen soil. Dadurch erhält das Kunstwerk einen freien, selbständigen, idealischen Charakter. ... denn es ist sichtbares Produkt eines Ich—Das Ich aber setzt sich auf diese Art bestimmt, weil es sich ... als ein unendlich darstellendes Ich setzen muß—so setzt es sich frei als ein bestimmt darstellendes Ich. ... das Objekt soli uns als ein Produkt des Ich bestimmen, nicht als bloßes Objekt. ... Darstellung ist eine Äußerung des innern Zustands, der innern Veränderungen—Erscheinung des innern Objekts” (“Philosophische Studien” [1795–96], Schriften, ed. Paul Kluckhohn [Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut, n.d.], ii, 193–194).
21 “Neue Fragmentensammlungen” (1798), Schriflen, ii, 326–327.
22 According to Novalis, the novel is natural, that is, organic poetry. Allegory, in which the relationship of ideas to represented images is logical rather than organic, belongs to artificial poetry (ibid., pp. 358–359).
23 See Hilde Cohn, “The Symbolic End of Hermann Hesse's Glasperknspiel,” MLQ, xi (Sept. 1950), 347–357.
24 Ibid., p. 350. The appended poems and autobiographies are not illustrations of biographical episodes but expressions of both the Game and Knecht's theme of life. For the relationship to Novalis, see Anni Carlsson, “Hermann Hesses Glasperknspiel in seinen Wesensgesetzen,” Trivium, iv (1946), 194 f. The idea of unity in multiplicity is suggested in Novalis' concept of genius or the “synthetic personality”: “Eine echt synthetische Person ist eine Person, die mehrere Personen zugleich ist—ein Genius. Jede Person ist der Keim zu einem unendlichen Genius. Sie vermag, in mehrere Personen zerteilt, doch auch eine zu sein. Die echte Analyse der Person als solcher bringt Personen hervor—die Person kann nur in Personen sich vereinzeln, sich zerteilen und zersetzen” (“Das allgemeine Brouillon” [1798–99], Schriften, iii, 70).
25 “[Ich] kenne besser als irgendeiner den Zustand, in welchem das ewige Selbst in uns dem sterblichen Selbst zuschaut und seine Spriinge und Grimassen begutachtet, voll Mitleid, voll Spott, voll Neutralitât” (Die Nürnberger Reise, Dichtungen, iv, 158–159). In “Kindheit des Zauberers,” the universalizing, controlling force of the self, referred to as the “demon,” is der kleine Mann who compels the child Hesse to follow him and who directs even the activities of Hesse, the older magician and grown artist (iv, 458 ff.). See also Oskar Seidlin, “Hermann Hesse: The Exorcism of the Demon,” Symposium, iv (Nov. 1950), 327–328, 337, et passim.
26 Max Schmid develops the opposition of Geisl and Seele in his attempt to show Hesse's relationship to Ludwig Klages' Kosmogenischer Eros and Der Geist als Widersacher der Seek (W und W, pp. 12–14, 94–96, 100–102, 210 ff., et passim). See also Seidlin, p. 333; cf. Heller, pp. 31–33.
27 Max Schmid, W und W, pp. 108, 123–125, 210–217; see also Heller, pp. 35–36. Heller cautiously suggests that integration through Geist does not take place even in Das Glasperknspiel (pp. 39–40).
28 See Curt von Faber du Faur, “Zu Hermann Hesses Glasperlenspiel,” Monalshefle, xl (April 1948), 179–180.
29 Intuitive vision or Schau need not be that of Geist. For a comparison of the romantic vision of harmony in Siddhartha and the classical vision of harmony in Das Glasperlenspiel, see Max Schmid, W und W, pp. 210–211. Yet the end of Das Glasperlenspiel suggests that the absolute dominion of Geist is called into question by Knecht's rejection of Kastalien and by his “legendary” death in the mountain lake. Cf. Cohn, pp. 356–357 et passim.
30 Gnefkow holds that Hesse became acquainted with early 19th-century philosophy through his reading of Goethe and Novalis (Biographie 1952, pp.45f., 52 f.). Comparing Knecht, the player of the Game of Glass Beads, with Knecht, the man of Kastalien, Max Schmid sees a relation of absolute and limited self in Fichtean terms (W und W, p. 174). Otto Engel suggests that Hegel's dialectic was prominent among those philosophies which were poetically reincarnated in Hesse's work (Hermann Hesse: Dichtung und Gedanke [Stuttgart: Frommanns, 1948], pp. 81–83). According to Von Faber du Faur, Schiller's definition of art as Spiel is present in the notion of the Game of Glass Beads (“Zu Hermann Hesses Glasperlenspiel,” p. 193).
31 Max Schmid views Klein's death as a dissolution of the self in the stream of experience, Knecht's death as self-discovery through which the master can pass on his mission to his pupil (W und W, pp. 49–50,189–191). Miss Cohn views Knecht's death in water as a symbolic act through which the spirit can be passed from teacher to pupil. In her judgment, the maternal archetype of water, a Jungian notion, is combined with the Christian idea of water as baptism and rebirth (“The Symbolic End,” pp. 355–356).
32 Cf. “Edmund,” Dichtungen, iv, 513.
33 “Neue Fragmentensammlungen” (1798), Schriflen, ii, 326.
34 “Die Auflösung der Dissonanzen (im Glasperlenspiel) ist die grosse neue Erfahrung. Daher die Bedeutung der Musik in diesem Werk. Sie ist das Symbol des Wohlklanges und des Einklangs; der rythmisch gegliederten Vergeistigung—also der Harmonie mit dem All” (Curtius, pp. 222–223).
35 “Neue Fragmentensammlungen” (1798), Schriften, ii, 326, 335.
36 Ibid., pp. 335–339.
37 In Das Glasperlenspiel, Hesse suggests that the “magic theater”—an obvious reference to Der Steppenwolf—represents the aim of the Game of Glass Beads; “magic” is harmony sought or attained beyond the “real” world (see Dichtungen, vi, 109). Hesse's view of magic calls to mind Novalis' “magischer Idealismus.” Cf.: “Er ist ein magischer Idealist, wie es magische Realisten gibt, Jener sucht eine Wunderbewegung—ein Wundersubjekt—dieser ein Wunder-objekt—eine Wundergestalt. Beides sind logische Krankheiten—Wahnarten—in denen sich allerdings das Ideal auf eine doppelte Weise ofienbart, oder spiegelt—heilige—isolierte Wesen—die das höhere Licht wunderbar brechen—wahrhaf te Propheten' ' (“Das allgemeine Brouillon,” Schriften, iii, 227–228).
38 Eine Bibliothek der Weltliteratur, pp. 67–85; Der Kurgast, Dichtungen, iv, 114.
39 Objects of magic are withdrawn from the external world and incorporated into the self, to change not things but oneself (Dichtungen, iv, 451). Cf. “Kurzgefasster Lebenslauf”: “Nun zwang ich dièse Wirklichkeit durch Magie nach meinem Sinne.” (Dichtungen, iv, 487).
40 Gnefkow identifies the act of magic with a revolt against “classicism” and “rationalism,” with Gemül winning against Verstand (Biographie 1952, p. 41). See Hesse's remark in Die Nürnberger Reise that tragedy and humor can overcome the duality of “poetry” and “world,” ideal and experience (Dichtungen, iv, 149).
41 Dichtungen, iv, 487–489. “Kurzgefasster Lebenslauf” was written with Jean Paul's “Konjekturalbiographie” in mind (iv, 469).
42 Philosophie der Kunst, Sämtliche Werke (Stuttgart, 1859), Erste Abteilung, v, 368–369 et passim.
43 Goethes Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde (Berlin, 1835), ii, 290 ff. (cited in Kunstanschauung der jüngeren Romantik, ed. Andreas Müller [Leipzig: Philipp Reclam, 1934], p. 45).
44 Vorschule der Aesthetik, Sämtliche Werke (Weimar: Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1935), Erste Abteilung, xi, 233–234.
45 Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde, iii, 196 (cited in Kunstanschauung ..., p. 49).
46 “Neue Fragmentensammlungen” (1798), Schriften, ii, 325–328.
47 See, e.g., Friedrich Schlegel's discussion of the relation of the idea of the novel to the time-bound, dramatic context of its fable (“Brief iiber den Roman,” Gespräch über die Poésie, Sämmtliche Werke (Wien, 1846, v, 222). Cf. Jean Paul's view that the magic of poetry must transcend the time-bound world, Vorschule der Aesthetik, pp. 233–234.
48 Dichtungen, iii, 364–383. The story “Lulu” (Lilia), inserted in Hermann Lauscher, also suggests Novalis' blue flower.
49 See “Über Jean Paul,” Betrachtungen, pp. 184–185.
50 “Passive Natur des Romanhelden. Er ist das Organ des Dichters im Roman. ... Poetische Ausfiihrung und Betrachtung aller Begegnisse des Lebens” (“Paralipomena zum ‘Heinrich von Ofterdingen’,” Schriften, i, 239). Friedrich Schlegel defined the novel as a compendium of all the experiences and encounters of a person of genius (Lyzeums-Fragment 78—cited in H. A. Korff, Geist der Goethezeit [Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1949], iii, 21).
51 Curtius suggests that Hesse was more at home in painting and music than in literature (pp. 213–214).
52 Der Kurgast, Dichtungen, iv, 114.
53 Hamburg, 1799 (cited in Kunstanschauung der Frühromantik, ed. Andreas Mülier [Leipzig: Philipp Reclam, 1931], p. 114).
54 Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde, i, 181 f.; ii, 283 f. (cited in Kunstanschauung ..., pp. 226–227).
55 Der Steppenwolf, Dichtungen, iv, 402–403; Das Gasperlenspiel, Dichtungen, vi, 99–100. Heitere Musik, that of Mozart and Bach, represents unity in playful and detached clarity. Rauschende Musik, that of Wagner and Brahms, is found in the Musik des Untergangs of “Klingsors letzter Sommer” and the music of the “feuilletonistische Zeitalter” in Das Glasperlenspiel; it seeks unification by merging with the chaos of polyphonic life.
56 “Brief über den Roman,” pp. 216 f. Cf. Jean Paul's discussion of the idyll, Vorschule der Aesthetik, pp. 240–241.
57 Dichtungen, iii, 611–612; “Neue Fragmentensammlungen” (1798), Schriften, ii, 359.
58 For a statement of Hesse's development from romanticism towards classicism, see Max Schmid, W und W, p. 211.