Hermann Hesse’s Das Glasperlenspiel: A Concealed Defense of the Mother World

The book gives a detailed analysis of the novel, based upon J.J. Bachofen’s concepts of hetaerism, conjugal matriarchy, and patri- archy and upon basic theories of C.G. Jung. It enhances the under- standing of the central theme: quest for self-fulfillment and reverence for the conjugal mother world. The author shows that Hesse, in this novel as in several earlier works, rejects the limitations of an illusionary and fictitious father world symbolized by Castalia and accepts Bachofen’s principle of an all-encompassing conjugal world of the mother, which corresponds to the Jungian concept of the integration of the self, as the most perfect stage of human development.