A LACANIAN ANALYSIS OF SELECTED NOVELS BY HERMANN HESSE Stefan Gullatz A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews 1999 Full metadata for this item is available in St Andrews Research Repository at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/XXX This item is protected by original copyright A Lacanian Analysis of Selected Novels by Hermann Hesse By Stefan Gullatz University of St. Andrews October 1998 This thesis was submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ProQuest Number: 10170676 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest 10170676 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 (i) I, Stefan Gullatz, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 98000 words I length , has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. date..f^£.'«™I.'..^....signature of canditate. "U (ii) I was admitted as a research student in October 1994 and as a candidate for the degree of PhD in October 1995; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St. Andrews between 1994 and 1998. date...^.*1..'..^..signature of candidate. 7..... 7/ (iii) I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of PhD in the University of St. Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit that thesis in application for that degrej date..*^.^.' ...Ztl.....^signature of supervisor.. ........... >.. In submitting this thesis to the University of St.Andrews I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. I also understand that the title and abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker. date (JQ. (<?■ signature of candidate, 1.....Z7 Abstract This dissertation takes the many existing, predominantly Jungian psychoanalytic approaches to Hesse as its starting point and then proceeds to an original recasting of some of Hesse's key novels (particularly Demian and Per Steppenwolf though a brief outline for Das Glasperlenspiel is provided in the concluding chapter) in the light of a Lacanian psychoanalysis and philosophy and a generally 'structuralist' understanding. My aim is to uncover how strategies of narrative signification in the complex architecture of Hesse's novels retroactively produce the spark of meaning which Jungians consider evidence of an intrinsic, archetypal essence at the core of the self. The Steppenwolf chapter in particular is also devoted to an investigation of the way in which meaning and mourning as functions constitutive of the subject crystallise in the use of metaphorical and allegorical devices. Lup ton's After Oedipus: Shakespeare in Psychoanalysis whi ch outlines a comprehensive paradigm for the interrelation of tropic narrative devices and their psychoanalytic undercurrents is a constant point of reference in this thesis, along with the works of Slavoj Zizek, arguably the most creative and influential contemporary Lacanian critic. Acknowledgement s I owe a great debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Raymond Furness, whose advice and support throughout this period of study has been unfailing. Dr. Bill Barnes-Gutteridge at the University of Stirling and some of his research student were instrumental in the formation of my original interest in undertaking a Lacanian study of Hermann Hesse. Beyond the University and Department Libraries in St. Andrews, important sources for this study were found in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, at the University of Heidelberg and at the University of Leuven. Without a grant for tuition fees from the Scottish Education Department this project would not have been possible. Loans and grants have been made available also by the Assistant Hebdomifdar of the University of St. Andrews, Mr. Douglas, and by the School of Modern Languages. With regard to the word-processing of this document, the friendly assistance of Dr. Julian Crowe, the classroom advisor, has been indispensable. Finally it was the gracious support of my parents during this period of research that facilitated this project. Stefan Gullatz Contents Chapter Page One An Introduction: Hesse and Lacan? 7 Two Demian: Substantialism versus Structuralism I. Outline 12 II. Kromer - Reassessing the Jungian 'Shadow' from a Lacanian Perspective 28 III. The Jungian Archetype of the 'Self' as an Ideological Construction 42 IV. Demian I - Demian as a Cipher for the Sublime 63 V. Demian II - The Creation of the (Psychoanalytic) Subject 80 VI. Beatrice 100 VII. Pathological and Radical Evil 132 VIII. The Incest Dream 158 IX. The Earth Mother and the Outbreak of War 166 X. Demian and Hesse's pre-Demian Literature 184 Three Per Steppenwolf: Melancholy and Allegory I. Outline 192 II. Steppenwolf’s Allegorical Mode as its Process of Enunciation 219 III. Melancholia in Freud and Lacan as a Key to Unravelling Haller 223 IV. An Investigation of the "Traktat" 234 V. Allegory and Signification in Relation to the Central Motif of the Wolf of the Steppes 267 VI. The Novel's 'Bourgeois World Order' and the Lacanian Other 304 VII. The Phenomenology of Haller's Death Drive 329 VIII. Hermine 335 IX. The Uncanny, the Death Drive and the Conflation of Demand and Desire 343 X. The Masked Ball 352 XI. The Magic Theatre 360 Four Conclusion: Towards a Lacanian Reading of Hesse's Glasperlenspiel 381 Appendix A 386 Appendix B 387 CHAPTER ONE AN INTRODUCTION; HESSE AND LACAN? In this dissertation we attempt a methodological examination of key works by Hermann Hesse in a Lacanian framework. What can be achieved by bringing together such apparently diverse figures as Hesse and Lacan, by viewing Hesse from a Lacanian angle? It is well-known that the emergence of the counter-culture in the United States and Europe in the 1960's led to a resurgence of interest in Hesse, both popular and critical. Hesse's Per Steppenwolf in particular, with its hostility towards the bourgeoisie and its stream of surreal imagery provided a point of identification for young readers disenchanted with the stale culture and conformity that dominated most Western democracies in the 1950's and early 1960's. As a result of the counter-culture's immersion in Eastern mysticism a number of works by Hesse that reflected the author's own, life-long preoccupation with Eastern philosophies such as Buddhism and Taoism also became prominent. These included Siddhartha and Das Glasperlenspiel. Other cultural factors conducive to the Hesse renaissance of the time included Timothy Leary's foreword to the English edition of Die Morgenlandfahrt establishing the credentials of that work in the eyes of a counter-culture intrigued by the exploration of inner space through an experimentation with mind-altering, psychedelic substances. In the context of this climate it is hardly 7 surprising that academic Hesse criticism also experienced a resurgence. The centre of gravity of this academic appraisal of Hesse was located in the United States. Two key, authoritative studies that remain important today were written on the cusp of the Hesse revival: Ziolkowski's The Novels of Hermann Hesse (1965) and Boulbys Hermann Hesse: His Mind and Art(1967). Yet the importance of Hesse waned in the 1970's and 1980's so that the time may have arrived for a re-evaluation or a new approach to reading Hesse. The Lacanian approach with its manifold ramifications cannot easily be encapsulated in a few words but it may be described as an 'existential psychoanalysis' broadly faithful to Freud which retains Freud's rational basis as opposed to Jungian mysticism. Crucially, Lacan brought the insights of modern, structural linguistics and structural anthropology - of which Freud himself was ignorant - to bear on psychoanalysis and his work also clearly betrays his early influence by the philosophies of Hegel and Heidegger. While Lacan's detractors point out that his famous 'baroque' rhetorical style which, in some respects, echoed the stance of Zen Buddhist sages appears to be in contrast to the rationality of his system, it can be argued that the opposite is the case, that it practically embodied one of Lacan's key theoretical claims: there is no metalanguage, no Other of the Other. It is hoped that the Lacanian angle which has demonstrably served as a potent tool in French and English literary criticism (the works of Proust and Shakespeare have been subjected to extensive Lacanian analyses) will illuminate aspects of Hermann Hesse's 8 literature that have escaped the net of previous Hesse studies, in particular the wide array of Jungian oriented texts that exhibit a non-critical infatuation with a 'Romantic unconscious'. Since a Lacanian approach to criticism is always text rather than author-based it is ideal to examining the minutiae of the complex structural fabric of Hesse's key works.