Outsiders and Others : Queer Friendships in Novels by Hermann Hesse

Friendship between men is a key theme in most novels by Hermann Hesse, one of the most widely read German-language authors of the twentieth century and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946.

Hesse’s protagonists are usually depicted as outsiders who come to know themselves in an intimate bond with another man. The friend is almost always portrayed as rebellious, beautiful, enigmatic, and inspiring, and comes to play a key role in the protagonist’s personal development and journey through life.

Outsiders and Others draws on queer theories and queer concepts to explore how characters in Hesse’s fiction intersect with and connote queerness—such as homoeroticism and nonconformism—and argues that the friendships at the center of Hesse’s stories are queer friendships that challenge heteronormative conceptions of relationality, sexuality, and desire. With readings of the novels Peter Camenzind (1904) and Der Steppenwolf (1927), this dissertation demonstrates that queerness is an essential element in Hesse’s frequent depictions of friendship.

Oscar von Seth (born 1981) is based at the Department for Comparative Literature at Södertörn University, Stockholm. His research interests include queer theory, masculinities, and representations of disability, animality, and race in literature. In addition to his academic work, he is the author of the novel Snö som föll i fjol (“Yesterday’s News,” Calidris, 2017).