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Book Cover
E-book
Author Stelzig, Eugene L., author

Title Hermann Hesse's fictions of the self : autobiography and the confessional imagination / Eugene L. Stelzig
Published Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [1988]
©1988

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Description 1 online resource (361 pages)
Series Princeton legacy library
Contents Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- I. The Confessional Imagination -- II. Life as Writing -- III. Self-Will -- IV. Autobiographical Beginnings -- V. Domestic Fictions -- Vi. Hesse's Marriage of Heaven and Hell -- VII. Ticino Legends of Saints and Sinners -- VIII. Live(D) Fantasies -- IX. Home to the Un-Becoming Self -- Epilogue: Who is he? -- Notes -- Index
Summary This masterful synthesis of criticism and biography surveys all of Hermann Hesse's major works and many of his minor ones in relation to the intricate psychological design of his entire life history. Eugene Stelzig examines what it means to be an "autobiographical writer" by considering Hesse's fictions of the self as an exemplary instance of the relationship between life and art and between biography and autobiography. In a graceful and inviting style, he frees this major confessional writer from the confines of German culture and the status of "cult figure" of the 1960s, and situates him in the tradition of world literature and in a variety of literary, psychological, philosophical, and religious contexts. Three introductory chapters on autobiography and Hesse set the stage for a chronological study. Then follows a penetrating analysis of the balance between biographical fact and confessional fantasy in Hesse's long career, from the failed autobiography of his first literary success, Beneath the Wheel, through the protracted midlife crisis of the grotesque Steppenwolf period, to the visionary autobiography of his magisterial fictional finale, The Glass Bead Game. Originally published in 1988. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-336) and index
Notes In English
Print version record
Subject Hesse, Hermann, 1877-1962
SUBJECT Hesse, Hermann, 1877-1962
Hesse, Hermann, 1877-1962 fast
Subject Authors, German -- 20th century -- Biography
Autobiographical fiction, German -- History and criticism
Confession in literature.
Self in literature.
Autobiography.
Autobiographies as Topic
autobiography (genre)
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- General.
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Literary.
Authors, German
Autobiographical fiction, German
Autobiography
Confession in literature
Self in literature
Genre/Form Biographies
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Biographies.
Biographies.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781400859559
1400859557