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Veneration and Revolt

Hermann Hesse and Swabian Pietism
  • Barry Stephenson
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2009

About this book

One of the most widely read German authors in the world, Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946. After his death, his novels enjoyed a revival of popularity, becoming a staple of popular religion and spirituality in Europe and North America.

Veneration and Revolt: Hermann Hesse and Swabian Pietism is the first comprehensive study of the impact of German Pietism (the religion of Hesse’s family and native Swabia) on Hesse’s life and literature. Hesse’s literature bears witness to a lifelong conversation with his religious heritage despite that in adolescence he rejected his family’s expectation that he become a theologian, cleric, and missionary.

Hesse’s Pietist upbringing and broader Swabian heritage contributed to his moral and political views, his pacifism and internationalism, the confessional and autobiographical style of his literature, his romantic mysticism, his suspicion of bourgeois culture, his ecumenical outlook, and, in an era scarred by two world wars, his hopes for the future. Veneration and Revolt offers a unique perspective on the life and works of one of the twentieth century’s most influential writers.

Author / Editor information

Contributor: Barry Stephenson

Barry Stephenson teaches in the Department of Religion and Culture at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, and conducts research in religion, and literature and ritual studies. He is presently completing a book and DVD on Luther-themed festivity and religious tourism in Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany.

Reviews

"Taking his title from Hesse, Barry Stephenson has given us the first thorough appreciation of the Nobel Prize--winner within the religious culture from which he emerged. Hesse's debt to pietism, against which he rebelled yet which he always venerated as his spiritual heritage, was long a commonplace. But no previous scholar approached the problematic topic with the requisite background in religious studies that informs this book. Beginning with the history of Pietism and its role in Swabia and German Romanticism, it moves through Hesse's life and oeuvre, exposing significant new dimensions from his early ‘religion of art’ to The Glass Bead Game. This major and highly readable contribution forces us to contemplate Hesse's novels in a wholly original and edifying light." --- "The enormous commentary on Hesse rarely takes this Pietist context seriously, but according to Stephenson, it is impossible to understand Hesse without understanding Pietism.... Stephenson's argument is compelling and its implications are striking.... Clearly and engagingly written, thoroughly rooted in Hesse's work and the vast commentary on Hesse, Stephenson's book is a fine general introduction to Hesse, as well as a powerful argument about the roots of Hesse's art. An important contribution to Hesse studies, Veneration and Revolt also contributes significantly to the ongoing debate about the origins, meanings, and trajectories of modernity."

Topics

  • Publicly Available

    Front Matter

    i
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    Contents

    v
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    Preface

    vii
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    Acknowledgements

    ix
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    Hermann Hesse: The Missionary’s Son

    xi
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  • Contexts
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    Pietism

    3
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    The Swabian Mandarins

    11
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    The Maulbronn Affair

    23
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    Romantics and Pietists

    39
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  • Setting Out
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    Hesse’s “Religion of Art”

    53
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    Peter Camenzind

    63
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    Beneath the Wheel

    71
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    Demian

    91
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    War, Church, and State

    115
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  • Turning Back
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    Siddhartha

    129
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    “Breaking the Will”

    145
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    Steppenwolf

    161
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    Narcissus and Goldmund

    173
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  • Coming Home
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    The Journey to the East

    181
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    Joseph Knecht and The Glass Bead Game

    193
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    Conclusion

    217
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    Notes

    223
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    Bibliography

    267
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    Index

    277
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    Series Published by WilfridLaurier University Press for the Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion / Corporation Canadienne des SciencesReligieuses

    284
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
February 19, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9781554581757
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
300
View content
https://doi.org/10.51644/9781554581757
eBook ISBN: 9781554581757
Keywords for this book
Literary Criticism; Religion
Audience(s) for this book
For a non-specialist adult audience
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