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This thesis explores Hermann Hesse's relation with temporality, as both a spiritual and historical category, and examines his pendulation between time and the timeless as an expression of his all-pervading dialectics. The topic is approached through a preliminary discussion of Hesse's dialectical framework (Chapter 1), followed by the examination of five interrelated themes which have time, or the timeless, as a common denominator. Music is the point of departure of the investigation (Chapters 2 and 3), which leads into a discussion on the temporality of memory and metamorphosis (Chapter 4), before focusing on eternity (Chapter 5) and its links with Hesse's 'Humor' and narrative irony (Chapter 6). Concentrating primarily on Hesse's prose fiction, this study rests on the assumption, discussed in the first chapter, that his novels and short stories are characterised by a pronounced biographical imprint. The traditionally literary background and approach of this dissertation are complemented with different perspectives from other fields such as neuroscience (memory), linguistics (humour), musicology and music theory. In discussing the various strands, attention has been drawn to underlying temporal patterns that highlight an evolution in Hesse's thought or artistry. This work, which seeks to extend knowledge in an area of research where only few scholars (e.g. Shaw, Karalaschwili, Moritz) have engaged directly or primarily with the question of temporality in Hesse, underlines the coalescence of the spatial and the temporal, the visual and the auditory in Hesse's poetics and aesthetics, and concludes that time and the timeless interlock, as a consequence of Hesse's dialectical framework, and as experienced by his characters in exceptional moments of revelation.

This Thesis offers a detailed analysis of Goethe's novel, Die Wahlverwandtschaften. It argues that the narrator of the novel is a complex entity, whose performance shifts between the disincarnate, un-personalized voice and the involved, personalized teller of the tale. It is suggested that the narrator makes his presence felt through generalizations and comments, and through the existence of a judgmental tone and reflective voice. A detailed reading of the episodes of narrative presence is undertaken. Central to this thesis is the contention that the narrative style does not remain constant, and the various implications of narrative presence and absence are examined. The interpolated texts within the novel are studied. The reader registers the gaps in the text precisely because such a strong voice has, at times, been heard, and it is this void which is shown to provide the reader with an invitation to interpret and question both the text and the process of patterning by the narrator and by the character themselves. The thesis enters into a debate with Gordon Burgess* A Computer Assisted Analysis of Goethe's Die Wahlverwandtschaften and his claim that the narrator is a manipulative character is challenged. John Banville's The Newton Letter is offered as an example of sophisticated intertextual reference and debate between literary works separated by almost two centuries. The issue of the experimenter as on the one hand separate from and on the other implicated in his experiment is discussed. In conclusion, it is argued that the shifting narrative performance in Die Wahlverwandtschften is the key to the enduring appeal of the novel.

The Tractatus de moribus, condicionibus et nequitia Turcorum is one of the most important first-hand accounts of life in fifteenth-century Turkey known to modern scholarship. It is the work of a Christian former slave of the Turks, writing after his return to the West. Although the author does not name himself, he can be identified as a Dominican priest, Georgius de Hungaria, who died in Rome in 1502. His Tractatus is conceived as a work of anti-Islamic polemic, yet it contains a surprisingly unbiased appraisal of Turkish customs. First printed c.1480 when European apprehension in the face of Ottoman expansion was at its height, the Tractatus was reprinted in numerous editions, and was widely used as a source by other authors. Luther edited the text in 1530, using the positive account of Turkish customs and religious observance as a weapon in his polemic against the Roman Catholic Church: if heathens could perform such exemplary works, who could fail to doubt the efficacy of works as a means of salvation? Sebastian Franck in his German translation of the Tractatus went further: replacing Georgius' commentary with his own, he used the text to attack institutional religion as a whole and to promote his concept of a non-dogmatic, spiritual Church of individuals united with each other only through their union with God -a Church which was not closed to Moslems or members of any other creed. This translation or adaptation, the Cronica der Türckey, marks Franck's decisive break with the Lutheran cause and the beginning of his lonely path as a 'spiritual individualist'. Franck reworked his translation of the Tractatus for his major geographical work, the Weltbuch of 1534. This thesis concerns itself primarily with Franck's Cronica, providing the first modern critical edition of this text, in a near-diplomatic transcription with an extensive glossary. The thesis also includes transcriptions of the Tractatus; of Türckei, an anonymous translation of the Tractatus, and of relevant additional material from Franck's Weltbuch. None of these texts has been published in full in a modern edition. In the Introduction Franck's Cronica is compared in detail with the Tractatus, highlighting the changes that occur in translation; the character and the significance of these changes are then discussed. It is established that Franck, whilst being unwilling to reverse any of Georgius' value judgements on Islam and Turkish culture, is highly selective in his choice of material for translation, and frequently gives the text new nuances and adds his own comment. The question of the Tractatus' influence on Franck's further development as a writer and thinker is also raised. The investigation then turns to Franck's use of the Tractatus material in his Weltbuch. His eclecticism becomes apparent in this text, in which Georgius' account is juxtaposed - but not synthesised - with material from other sources, often of lesser veracity and greater anti-Islamic bias. Franck's distortion of the Tractatus material to suit his own line of argument is clearly discernible: from the unique phenomenon presented in the Tractatus the Turks become one more example of the general human tendency to externalise and dogmatise faith. In addition, the transmission of Cronica and Türckei is examined, and the relationship between these two translations is clarified: Franck certainly used Türckei in writing his Cronica, but is unlikely to be the author of the anonymous work.

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