Hesse's Steppenwolf: A Comic-Psychological ... - Janus Head

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�e perception of life as a reality of metaphorical reflection is what
characterizes Steppenwolf as a psychological comedy. Accordingly, the
transcendence made possible through Haller’s re-education--which may
legitimately be described as an initiation into psychological reality--is not
an overcoming of physical existence but rather the realization of possibilities
which go beyond the stagnant, deadly situation of Haller’s ego domination
and absorption in a literally dual existence. �ese possibilities are opened
because psychological reality is the disruption of the dichotomies and divisions
which had previously structured the Steppenwolf’s life. With the
breakdown of the Steppenwolf’s split between mind and body, subject and
object, comes the laughter of release and the revivification of the mundane
world provocative of the wonder which accompanies metaphorical psychological
reflection.
In creating this account of psychological life, Hesse’s art and vision
are one. By making his readers experience metaphorical reality through
double perception, Hesse disrupts the very dichotomies from which the
Steppenwolf himself must gain release. Hesse realized that to some extent,
we are all Steppenwolves caught in the divisions between subject and object,
inner and outer, mind and matter. We are all subject to the homelessness of
modernity. Little wonder that the 1960s’ counter-culture, a generation who
felt most acutely that its society was held by a materialism that was dead
and a spirituality which was empty, should be attracted by Steppenwolf.
To endure life, one must embrace it through humor and imagination.
To overcome alienation, one must reorient one’s perception of reality, not
take refuge in despair. �is is the vision of human life that places Steppenwolf
within the comic tradition. It is as well the re-visioning of contemporary
reality which has given Hesse’s psychological comedy its claim to authentic
cultural relevance.
References
Bolby, M. (1967). Herman Hesse: His Mind and his Art. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press.
Cowan, L. (1984). “Introduction: �e Comic Terrain.” In L. Cowan (Ed.)
�e Terrain of Comedy (pp. 1-18). Dallas: �e Dallas Institute of Humanities
and Culture.
Freedman, R. (1973). “Person and Persona: �e Magic Mirrors of Steppenwolf.”
In T. Ziolowski (Ed.), Hesse: A Collection of Critical Essays