MANIFESTATIONS OF POSTMODERNISM IN HERMANN HESSE'S NOVEL “THE GLASS BEAD GAME”

Authors

  • Ara Arakelyan Yerevan State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46991/AFA/2023.19.1.118

Keywords:

high modernism, postmodernism, postmodern relativism, deconstruction, text, chaos, simulacrum, eclecticism, pluralism, game

Abstract

The paper attempts to consider the connections between postmodernism, aesthetics and Herman Hesse’s novel The Glass Bead Game referring to the history of the last most influential manifestation of the theoretical and aesthetic thought of the West – postmodernism, also characterized by paradoxes. Based on a number of fundamental principles of the aesthetics of postmodernism and data on the work of Hermann Hesse, the specific relations that connect Hesse’s work with postmodernism, are considered. This refers first to the ideas of the world as chaos, then aesthetic eclecticism, multiculturalism and finally game. Within the framework of the idea the world as chaos, the wide use of the concept of simulacrum in both Hesse’s and postmodernist works is considered. Aesthetic eclecticism, which is “the dominant sign of the culture of the postmodern era” (J.-F. Lyotard, I. Ilyin), is also found in Hesse’s novel in various manifestations. Multiculturalism, both as a social utopia and as an aesthetic principle, is also widespread among postmodernist aesthetes (especially L. Fiedler) and in Hesse’s novel. In the novel the East-West political and cultural dialogue also deepens. Finally, the game, being one of the stable European cultural codes, is rediscovered both in Hesse’s novel and in postmodernist aesthetics (U. Eco).

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References

Anderson, P. (2011). Istoki postmoderna [The origins of Postmodern]. Moscow: “Teritoriya budushchego”. (in Russian)

Bychkov, V. (2004). Estetika [Aesthetics]. Moscow: Gardariki. (in Russian)

Deleuze, Zh., & Guattari, F. (1998). Chto takoye filosofiya? [What is Philosophy?]. St. Petersburg: “ALETEYA”. (in Russian)

Eko, U. (2014). Grarumner “Vardi anvan” ejerin [Notes on the pages of “The Name of the Rose”]. Yerevan: Antares. (in Armenian)

Ilyin, I. (1996). Poststructuralism. Dekonstructivism. [Poststructuralism. Deconstructivism]. Мoscow: INTRADA. (in Russian)

Jenks, Ch. (1985). Yazik arkhitektury postmoderna [The language of Postmodern architecture]. Moscow: Stroyizdat. (in Russian)

Kuritsyn, V. (1992). Postmodernism: Novaya pervobytnaya kul’tura [Postmodernism: new primitive culture]. Noviy mir, 2, 225-232 (in Russian).

Lukasc, G. (1962). Die Theorie des Romans [The Theory of the Novel]. Munich: dtv.

Tsurganova, Y. A. (2004) Zapadnoye literaturovedeniye [20th Century Western Literature Studies]. Мoscow: INTRADA. (in Russian)

Tarnas, R. (1995). Istoriya zapadnogo myshleniya [History of the Western Thought]. Moscow: KRON-PRESS. (in Russian)

Sources of Data

Hesse, H. (2016). Hulunqakhagh [The Glass Bead Game]. Yerevan: Antares. (in Armenian)

Borges, L. (1992). Yerku Arqanery yev yerku labirintosnery [The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths]. (H. Bodukyan Trans.). Yerevan: Apolon. (in Armenian)

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Published

2023-05-29

How to Cite

Arakelyan, A. (2023). MANIFESTATIONS OF POSTMODERNISM IN HERMANN HESSE’S NOVEL “THE GLASS BEAD GAME”. Armenian Folia Anglistika, 19(1 (27), 118–128. https://doi.org/10.46991/AFA/2023.19.1.118

Issue

Section

Literature Studies