“Der Fluß des Geschehens”: Time and Experience in Hermann Hesse’s Demian and Siddhartha

Abstract

The idea of “experience”, and the implications thereof for our development as human beings, was of central importance to the literary imagination of Hermann Hesse. This essay will explore the reasons for this, and provide a reading of two of Hesse’s most remarkable texts, Demian. Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend (1919) and Siddhartha. Eine indische Dichtung (1923), in the context both of contemporary discourses and intellectual trends and of the philosophical framework that underpins the texts. It will argue that a paradoxical but fruitful understanding of experience lies at the heart of the works, and of Siddhartha in particular. They present a case for the essential value of experience, which provides the structure to a chronological narrative and is the means through which we perceive the world, and at the same time make a philosophical case for its ultimate irrelevance.