hermann hesse’s global impact: past, present, future

A timely collection of new essays arguing for the continuing relevance and impact of Hesse’s works around the world.

Hermann Hesse remains one of the great figures of world literature. He is the world’s 35th most translated author, with more than 1,500 translations of his works currently listed on UNESCO’s Index Translatorium. Our understanding of the reciprocal transcultural reception of literature has been radically transformed in the last two decades, starting with David Damrosch’s What Is World Literature? (2003). Meanwhile, some forty years have passed since Martin Pfeifer’s anthology Hermann Hesses weltweite Wirkung (Hermann Hesse’s Worldwide Impact) was published, which means it is time to consider Hesse’s global impact again, though not in terms of a country-by-country study. Rather, this book explores Hesse’s continuing global relevance more broadly. Hesse is ＂global＂ in the sense that his themes touch on the non-material side of human existence in a way that readers in different cultural communities respond to. His prose and poetry offer an oasis of calm, authenticity, and spirituality - a mental terrain of profound and genuine meaning. The present collection of new essays argues that this ＂spiritual capital＂ may help readers of Hesse in uncertain times, beyond the doctrines of organized religions or ideologies, assisting them in inhabiting creatively both the world of literature and the visceral world of the early 21st century.

Contributors: Flavia Arzeni, Thomas Cyron, Helga Esselborn-Krumbiegel, Carina Gröner, Karl-Josef Kuschel, Thomas Taro Lennerfors, Volker Michels, Christopher Newton, Shrikant Arun Pathak, John Pizer, Adam Roberts, Christiane Schönfeld, Laszlo V. Szabo, Girissha Ameya Tilak, Oscar von Seth, Jennifer Walker, Yoichi Yamamoto, Michal Zawadzki, and Chunhua Zhan.