Architecture in Contemporary Literature

Der Steppenwolf

Author(s): Dicle Aydın * .

Pp: 23-31 (9)

DOI: 10.2174/9789815165166123010005

* (Excluding Mailing and Handling)

Abstract

This study deals with Hermann Hesse's novel Steppenwolf, whose authorship stands out in the context of place. Hesse adopts the view that individuals should develop their self-identity, a sense of being competent and effective towards life and people in the fight against the crushing effects of the modern world, and brings this situation to the fore in his novels. In the Steppenwolf novel, the main character, Harry Haller, comes out in pieces with psychological character analyzes. The novel draws pictures in the mind of the reader about the place and character and depicts the personality traits by matching them with the place. Time (past, yesterday, today), place (lived, imagined, perceived, existing in mind) and user (personality, character, value judgments, perception, mood) exist in work as the intersection points of literature and architecture. The hostel, where the main character, who travels a lot, sees many places, and leads a dynamic life, temporarily stays, is the first place we come across in work. The spatial traces that the character overlaps with his past are overlapped with abstract feelings and nostalgia. It defines the desolate places in the city by making the invisible visible through emotions, what is in the mind, dreams, and blurred situations in mind. Emotions, feelings, and the loneliness of users are the reason they prefer to be in different places. The place exists as a situation where the subject and object require each other. The place is what the body experiences and lives as a part of the real world. The different auras of the places become a reality at the level of consciousness that users perceive and make sense of with their sense organs. Actions, behaviors, attitudes, and stances overlap with the place and the user. The mood of the user, namely, the subject, is effective in perceiving, interpreting, and living in the place. The interaction of the subject (user) and the object (place) tells us about the experience. In Steppenwolf, the place occurs in the context of the user and time as an inseparable part of life. 

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