Demian
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Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth is a Bildungsroman by Hermann Hesse, first published in 1919, but a prologue was added in 1960. In it, Emil Sinclair is a young boy who was raised in a bourgeois home described as a Scheinwelt. "Scheinwelt" is a play of words and means world of light as well as world of illusion. Through the novel, accompanied and prompted by his mysterious classmate Max Demian, he descends from and revolts against the superficial ideals of this world, eventually awakening into a realization of self. The novel references concepts of Gnosticism, particularly the god Abraxas, and shows the influence of Carl Jung's system of psychoanalysis. Hesse said the novel was a story of Jungian individuation, the process of opening up to one's unconscious.
| Der Vogel kämpft sich aus dem Ei. Das Ei ist die Welt. Wer geboren werden will, muss eine Welt zerstören. Der Vogel fliegt zu Gott. Der Gott heisst Abraxas. (The bird struggles out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever wants to be born, must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God's name is Abraxas.) |
Hesse summarizes the idea of being young and confused through Sinclair's point of view; a phase of self-questioning everyone goes through while growing. The book is pointing out a different kind of love, as well as a different kind of friendship which makes readers to ask whether it is for real.
Demian was first published under the pseudonym "Emil Sinclair", the name of the narrator of the story, but Hesse was later revealed to be the author. The name "Emil Sinclair" was chosen because he was a friend of the poet Novalis, whom Hesse adored.
| The Work of Hermann Hesse | |
|---|---|
| Poems Romantic Songs, One Hour After Midnight, Poems | |
| Novels: Peter Camenzind, Beneath the Wheel, Gertrude, Rosshalde, Knulp, Demian, Klein and Wagner, Klingsor's Last Summer, Siddhartha, Kurgast, Die Nürnberger Reise, Steppenwolf, Narcissus and Goldmund, Journey to the East, Autobiographical Writings, The Glass Bead Game | |
| Essays: If the War Goes On ..., My Belief: Essays on Life and Art | |
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