Steppenwolf

In the 1920s, World War I (WWI) was over, but many people saw World War II (WWII) on the horizon. This span of time is known as the Interwar Period. The power centers of the old Europe had been largely swept away in WWI, and new ideologies fought one another for dominance. Haller notes his opposition to jingoism, a form of nationalism that advocates for war. However, there were also significant cultural changes occurring during this time, and the text explores differing perspectives on these changes. Culturally, music, art, and literature were shifting away from the classical, realist, and romantic forms of the previous century, embracing Modernism, jazz, and abstraction. Technology was advancing rapidly, leading to the presence of wireless radios in many homes, cars in the street, and terrifying weapons of escalating impact.

Haller is initially anti-Modernist as a character, despite the Modernist nature of Hesse’s novel. He dislikes radios for distorting the sounds of classical music, he sees modern technology as synonymous with war and destruction, and he laments the disintegration of European culture and society. Anti-Modernism is inherently reactionary, and it often relied on arguments of decay or degradation to posit that European culture was being overrun or replaced by modern influences. The core of this reactionary ideology was the idolization of the past, such as Haller’s obsessions with Mozart, Goethe, and Handel, which were used to criticize modern iterations of art and culture. At the same time, this ideology opposed technological advances as equally dangerous and degrading, expressing a longing for a simpler time before the advent of industrialism. A critical theme in the text focuses on Haller’s dedication to anti-Modernism, though the text overall ridicules Haller’s rigid perspective.