| In this study, I examine how Nobel-Laureate Hermann Hesse used German Romantic and Classical Indian literatures to navigate his mid-life crisis, which spanned the years 1916 to 1927. To illustrate how Hesse used these literatures therapeutically, I focus on the three major novels of this period---namely, Demian, Siddhartha, and Steppenwolf---and to understand the psychological nature of Hesse's mid-life crisis, I employ primarily the Jungian theories of individuation and of the archetypes of the puer aeternus (Latin, "eternal boy") and senex (Latin, "old man"), respectively. In addition, theories on mid-life crisis, on the life cycle, and on fatherhood and male mentoring in modernity provide not only psychological but also cultural and sociological insights into how Hesse came to fall into the mid-life crisis. Using studies in German Romantic literature, Modernism, and Classical Indian spiritual texts, I reveal how Hesse synthesized these traditions to find his own path through his difficult crisis; moreover, to shed light on how Hesse received and used Indian literature, I draw upon studies in East-West literary relations and Orientalism. Of course, I rely on the major statements in Hesse scholarship to support and to develop all of my objectives.; With the aforementioned methods and sources, I show that Hesse used German Romantic paradigms to objectify his infantile, narcissistic, puer-inflated ego as well as his cynical, depressed, senex-inflated ego---the primary polarity with which he wrestled throughout his mid-life crisis---and that he used Indian spirituality as a way to compensate for these inflations. Essentially, Hesse's use of these traditions in the three major novels reveals his progression through the crisis, with Demian marking the beginning of the crisis by showing a development in Hesse's protagonists from the true puer to the puer hero, Siddhartha presenting a maturation of that puer hero into an ironical middle-aged hero, and Steppenwolf articulating Hesse's struggle with inflation by the senex and his effort to balance the puer/senex split. The study will conclude by showing that Hesse achieved this balance and emerged from the mid-life crisis with the completion of Steppenwolf. |
