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Heidegger's Existential Philosophy and Modern German Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Hans Jaeger*
Affiliation:
Indiana University, Bloomington

Extract

Hermann Hesse in the “Tractat vom Steppenwolf” makes the following pungent remark about Faust, actually meaning modern man: “When Faust speaks the words which are so famous among school teachers and admired with awe by philistines : ‘Two souls, alas, are dwelling in my breast!‘ Faust is forgetting Mephistopheles and quite a lot of other souls that he likewise has in his breast ... The breast, the body is always uniform, of course; the number of souls in it, however, is not two nor five but infinite.” The bewildering multiplication of souls in our chaotic age produces an equally bewildering increase of conflicts. This fact cannot be denied, at least not for Germany. Also its literature bears it out. On that basis Hesse's diagnosis is even too simple. The body is by no means uniform. It too is in discord, as the literature of sexual life from Wedekind to Ferdinand Bruckner reveals. The artist as sensitive barometer of his age is particularly affected by the general disintegration. Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse have treated this phenomenon with frightening perspicacity, Hesse most penetratingly in his description of Klingsor's self-portrait. Decadence has become a common slogan for the modern way of life, in Germany and elsewhere.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1952

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