The philosophical fragments in Hermann Hesse's literary works

• Main Author: Velasco, Mary Laureen L.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1992
• Subjects: Hesse; Hermann > Criticism and interpretation; Existentialism in literature; Philosophy in literature; Philosophical literature; Philosophy
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/1535
• Institution: De La Salle University

This paper studies and unravels the philosophical fragments, particularly the existential ideas, in Hermann Hesse's literary writings by integrating the analyses done by other writers and by hermeneutic approach. Here, the reader finds the themes of existentialism recurring in ten of Hesse's novels. From Peter Camenzind to The Glass Bead Game, Hermann Hesse has mirrored the battle for individuality that tends to drown in collectivity and a false sense of security, its accompanying angst, suffering, despair, etc. In these novels, Hesse has wonderfully portrayed the tension and the dilemma between death and existential rebirth.Hans Giebenrath (Beneath the Wheel) suffered the misfortune of not surviving his existential expedition. Harry Haller (Steppenwolf) failed but was willing to open again hell's gate into his inner self. Kuhn (Gertrude), Demian (Demian), Siddhartha (Siddhartha) had thought of using the scythe of death with their own hands but had managed to pull through the existential predicament. Hesse's novels, however, do not only contain great philosophical and existential insights. They contain something which a reader will never find in philosophical treatises, namely, the experience of being accompanied and ushered into a world which marvelously mirrors one's own.