Hermann Hesse and the Dialectics of Time

This thesis explores Hermann Hesse’s relation with temporality, as both a spiritual and historical category, and examines his pendulation between time and the timeless as an expression of his all-pervading dialectics. The topic is approached through a preliminary discussion of Hesse’s dialectical framework (Chapter 1), followed by the examination of five interrelated themes which have time, or the timeless, as a common denominator. Music is the point of departure of the investigation (Chapters 2 and 3), which leads into a discussion on the temporality of memory and metamorphosis (Chapter 4), before focusing on eternity (Chapter 5) and its links with Hesse’s ‘Humor’ and narrative irony (Chapter 6).Concentrating primarily on Hesse’s prose fiction, this study rests on the assumption, discussed in the first chapter, that his novels and short stories are characterised by a pronounced biographical imprint. The traditionally literary background and approach of this dissertation are complemented with different perspectives from other fields such as neuroscience (memory), linguistics (humour), musicology and music theory. In discussing the various strands, attention has been drawn to underlying temporal patterns that highlight an evolution in Hesse’s thought or artistry.This work, which seeks to extend knowledge in an area of research where only few scholars (e.g. Shaw, Karalaschwili, Moritz) have engaged directly or primarily with the question of temporality in Hesse, underlines the coalescence of the spatial and the temporal, the visual and the auditory in Hesse’s poetics and aesthetics, and concludes that time and the timeless interlock, as a consequence of Hesse’s dialectical framework, and as experienced by his characters in exceptional moments of revelation.