German writer and academic (1944?2001)
Winfried Georg Sebald
[1]
(18 May 1944 ? 14 December 2001), known as
W. G. Sebald
or (as he preferred)
Max Sebald
, was a German writer and academic. At the time of his death at the age of 57, he was according to
The New Yorker
”widely recognized for his extraordinary contribution to world literature.”
[2]
Life
[
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]
Sebald was born in
Wertach
,
Bavaria
, the second of the three children of Rosa and Georg Sebald, and his parents' only son. From 1948 to 1963, he lived in
Sonthofen
.
[3]
His father had joined the
Reichswehr
in 1929 and served in the
Wehrmacht
under the
Nazis
. His father remained a detached figure, a
prisoner of war
until 1947; his maternal grandfather, the small-town police officer Josef Egelhofer (1872?1956), was the most important male presence during his early years.
[4]
Sebald was shown images of
The Holocaust
while at school in
Oberstdorf
and recalled that no one knew how to explain what they had just seen. The Holocaust and European modernity, especially its modes of warfare and persecution, later became central themes in his work.
[5]
Sebald studied German and English literature first at the
University of Freiburg
and then at the
University of Fribourg
in Switzerland, where he received a degree in 1965.
[6]
He was a
Lector
at the
University of Manchester
from 1966 to 1969. He returned to
St. Gallen
in Switzerland for a year hoping to work as a teacher but could not settle. Sebald married his Austrian-born wife, Ute, in 1967. In 1970 he became a lecturer at the
University of East Anglia
(UEA). There, he completed his PhD in 1973 with a dissertation entitled
The Revival of Myth: A Study of Alfred Doblin's Novels
.
[7]
[8]
Sebald acquired
habilitation
from the
University of Hamburg
in 1986.
[9]
In 1987, he was appointed to a chair of
European literature
at UEA. In 1989 he became the founding director of the
British Centre for Literary Translation
. He lived at
Wymondham
and
Poringland
while at UEA.
Final year
[
edit
]
The 2001 publication of
Austerlitz
(both in German and English) secured Sebald worldwide fame:
[10]
"
Austerlitz
was received enthusiastically on an international scale; literary critics celebrated it frenetically; the book established Sebald as a modern classic."
[11]
He was tipped as a possible future winner of the
Nobel Prize in Literature
.
[2]
[12]
[13]
With grown and still growing reputation, he was now in high demand by literary institutions and radio programmes throughout Western Europe.
[14]
Newspapers, magazines and journals from Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain and the U.S. urged him for interviews.
[15]
"Condemned to unrest I am, I am afraid", he wrote to
Andreas Dorschel
in June 2001, returning from one trip and setting out for the next.
For a considerable time, Sebald had been aware of a congenital cardiac insufficiency;
[16]
to a visitor from the US, he described himself in August 2001 as "someone who knows he has to leave before too long".
[17]
Sebald died while driving near
Norwich
in December 2001.
[18]
The event threw the literary public into a state of shock.
[19]
Sebald had been driving with his daughter Anna, who survived the crash.
[12]
The coroner's report, released some six months after the accident, stated that Sebald had suffered a heart attack and had died of this condition before his car swerved across the road and collided with an oncoming lorry.
[20]
W.G. Sebald is buried in St. Andrew's churchyard in
Framingham Earl
, close to where he lived.
[21]
Themes and style
[
edit
]
Sebald's works are largely concerned with the themes of memory and loss of memory (both personal and collective) and decay (of civilizations, traditions or physical objects). They are, in particular, attempts to reconcile himself with, and deal in literary terms with, the trauma of the
Second World War
and its effect on the German people. In
On the Natural History of Destruction
(1999), he wrote an essay on the wartime bombing of German cities and the absence in German writing of any real response. His concern with
The Holocaust
is expressed in several books delicately tracing his own biographical connections with
Jews
.
[22]
Contrary to Germany's political and intellectual establishment,
[23]
Sebald denied the singularity of the Holocaust: "I see the catastrophe caused by the Germans, dreadful as it was, by no means as a singular event ? it developed with a certain logic from European history and then, for the same reason, ate itself into European history."
[24]
Consequently, Sebald, in his literary work, always tried to situate and contextualize the Holocaust within modern European history, even avoiding a focus on Germany.
Sebald completely rejected the mainstream of Western German literature of the 1950s to 1970s, as represented by
Heinrich Boll
and
Gunter Grass
: "I hate [...] the German postwar novel like pestilence."
[25]
He took a deliberate counter-stance. Sebald's distinctive and innovative novels (which he mostly called simply:
prose
("Prosa")
[26]
) were written in an intentionally somewhat old-fashioned and elaborate German (one passage in
Austerlitz
famously contains a sentence that is 9 pages long). Sebald closely supervised the English translations (principally by
Anthea Bell
and
Michael Hulse
). They include
Vertigo
,
The Emigrants
,
The Rings of Saturn
and
Austerlitz
. They are notable for their curious and wide-ranging mixture of fact (or apparent fact), recollection and fiction, often punctuated by indistinct black-and-white photographs set in evocative counterpoint to the narrative rather than illustrating it directly. His novels are presented as observations and recollections made while travelling around Europe. They also have a dry and mischievous sense of humour.
[27]
Sebald was also the author of three books of poetry:
For Years Now
with
Tess Jaray
(2001),
After Nature
(1988), and
Unrecounted
(2004).
Works
[
edit
]
- 1988
After Nature.
London: Hamish Hamilton. (
Nach der Natur. Ein Elementargedicht
) English ed. 2002
- 1990
Vertigo
.
London: Harvill. (
Schwindel. Gefuhle
) English ed. 1999
- 1992
The Emigrants
.
London: Harvill. (
Die Ausgewanderten. Vier lange Erzahlungen
) English ed. 1996
- 1995
The Rings of Saturn
.
London: Harvill. (
Die Ringe des Saturn. Eine englische Wallfahrt
) English ed. 1998
- 1998
A Place in the Country
.
(
Logis in einem Landhaus
) English ed. 2013
- 1999
On the Natural History of Destruction
.
London: Hamish Hamilton. (
Luftkrieg und Literatur: Mit einem Essay zu Alfred Andersch
) English ed. 2003
- 2001
Austerlitz
.
London: Hamish Hamilton. (
Austerlitz
) English ed. 2001
- 2001
For Years Now
.
London: Short Books.
- 2003
Unrecounted
London: Hamish Hamilton. (
Unerzahlt, 33 Texte
) English ed. 2004
- 2003
Campo Santo
London: Hamish Hamilton. (
Campo Santo, Prosa, Essays
) English ed. 2005
- 2008
Across the Land and the Water: Selected Poems, 1964?2001.
(
Uber das Land und das Wasser
. Ausgewahlte Gedichte 1964?2001.) English ed. 2012
Influences
[
edit
]
The works of
Jorge Luis Borges
, especially "
The Garden of Forking Paths
" and "
Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
", were a major influence on Sebald. (Tlon and Uqbar appear in
The Rings of Saturn.
)
[28]
In a conversation during his final year, Sebald named
Gottfried Keller
,
Adalbert Stifter
,
Heinrich von Kleist
and
Jean Paul
as his literary models.
[29]
He also credited the Austrian novelist
Thomas Bernhard
as a major influence on his work,
[30]
and paid homage within his work to
Kafka
[31]
and
Nabokov
(the figure of Nabokov appears in every one of the four sections of
The Emigrants
).
[32]
Memorials
[
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]
Sebaldweg ("Sebald Way")
[
edit
]
As a memorial to the writer, in 2005 the town of
Wertach
created an eleven kilometre long walkway called the
"Sebaldweg"
.
It runs from the border post at
Oberjoch
(1,159m) to W. G. Sebald's birthplace on Gruntenseestrasse 3 in Wertach (915m). The route is that taken by the narrator in
Il ritorno in patria
, the final section of
Vertigo
("Schwindel. Gefuhle") by W. G. Sebald. Six
steles
have been erected along the way with texts from the book relating to the respective topographical place, and also with reference to fire and to people who died in the Second World War, two of Sebald's main themes.
[33]
Sebald Copse
[
edit
]
In the grounds of the
University of East Anglia
in
Norwich
a round wooden bench encircles a
copper beech tree
, planted in 2003 by the family of W. G. Sebald in memory of the writer. Together with other trees donated by former students of the writer, the area is called the "Sebald Copse". The bench, whose form echoes
The Rings of Saturn
, carries an inscription from the penultimate poem of
Unerzahlt
("Unrecounted"): "Unerzahlt bleibt die Geschichte der abgewandten Gesichter" ("Unrecounted always it will remain the story of the averted faces"
[34]
)
Patience (After Sebald)
[
edit
]
In 2011,
Grant Gee
made the documentary
Patience (After Sebald)
about the author's trek through the East Anglian landscape.
[35]
References
[
edit
]
Citations
[
edit
]
- ^
In a number of interviews, Sebald claimed that his third given name was "Maximilian" ? this has, however, turned out not to be the case; see Uwe Schutte,
W.G. Sebald. Leben und literarisches Werk.
Berlin/Boston, MA: de Gruyter, 2020, p. 8.
- ^
a
b
O'Connell, Mark (14 December 2011).
"Why You Should Read W. G. Sebald"
.
The New Yorker
.
- ^
W.G. Sebald, Schriftsteller und Schuler am Gymnasium Oberstdorf
Archived
3 February 2009 at the
Wayback Machine
(in German)
- ^
Thomas Diecks (2010).
"Sebald, W. G. (Max, eigentlich Winfried Georg Maximilian)"
.
Neue Deutsche Biographie
. Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (HiKo), Munchen. pp. 106?107
. Retrieved
19 February
2022
.
- ^
Carrigan Jr., Henry L. (2010).
W. G. Sebald
(4th ed.). Critical Survey of Long Fiction.
- ^
Eric Homberger,
"WG Sebald,"
The Guardian
, 17 December 2001, accessed 9 October 2010.
- ^
Martin, James R. (2013).
"On Misunderstanding W.G. Sebald"
(PDF)
.
Cambridge Literary Review
.
IV
(7): 123?38. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 11 March 2016
. Retrieved
4 March
2016
.
- ^
Sebald, W. G. (1973).
The Revival of myth: a study of Alfred Doblin's novels
.
British Library
EThOS
(Ph.D)
. Retrieved
4 March
2016
.
- ^
[1]
[
permanent dead link
]
- ^
Uwe Schutte, 'Rezeption | Anglo-amerikanischer Raum'. In: Claudia Ohlschlager, Michael Niehaus (eds.),
W.G. Sebald-Handbuch: Leben ? Werk ? Wirkung.
Stuttgart: Metzler, 2017, pp. 305?309, pp. 305 and 306.
- ^
Christian Hein, 'Rezeption | Deutschsprachiger Raum'. In: Claudia Ohlschlager, Michael Niehaus (eds.),
W.G. Sebald-Handbuch: Leben ? Werk ? Wirkung.
Stuttgart: Metzler, 2017, pp. 300?305, p. 300: "
Austerlitz
wurde international begeistert rezipiert, von der Literaturkritik frenetisch gefeiert und verlieh Sebald den Status eines modernen Klassikers."
- ^
a
b
Gussow, Mel (15 December 2001).
"W. G. Sebald, Elegiac German Novelist, Is Dead at 57"
.
The New York Times
.
- ^
In 2007
Horace Engdahl
, former secretary of the
Swedish Academy
, mentioned Sebald,
Ryszard Kapu?ci?ski
and
Jacques Derrida
as three recently deceased writers who would have been worthy laureates.
"Tidningen Vi ? STANDIGT DENNA HORACE!"
. Retrieved
23 November
2021
.
- ^
Philippa Comber, 'Autorbiographie'. In: Claudia Ohlschlager, Michael Niehaus (eds.),
W.G. Sebald-Handbuch: Leben ? Werk ? Wirkung.
Stuttgart: Metzler, 2017, pp. 5?9, p. 9.
- ^
Uwe Schutte,
W.G. Sebald. Einfuhrung in Leben und Werk.
Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011, p. 33.
- ^
Uwe Schutte,
Figurationen. Zum lyrischen Werk von W.G. Sebald.
Eggingen: Isele, 2021, p. 49.
- ^
Lynne Sharon Schwartz (ed.),
The Emergence of Memory: Conversations with W.G. Sebald
, New York, NY/London/Melbourne/Toronto 2007, p. 162.
- ^
Vanessa Thorpe, 'Cult novelist killed in car accident',
The Observer
, 16 December 2001.
- ^
Scott Denham, 'Forword: The Sebald Phenomenon', in: Scott Denham, Mark McCulloh (eds.),
W.G. Sebald: History ? Memory ? Trauma
, Berlin/New York, NY: de Gruyter 2006, pp. 1?6, p. 2: ”Sebald's premature death in December, 2001, shocked the literary world in Germany as well as in his home, Britain, and in the U.S.”
- ^
Angier, Carole (2021).
Speak, Silence: In Search of W.G. Sebald
. Bloomsbury.
- ^
Uwe Schutte,
W.G. Sebald: Einfuhrung in Leben und Werk.
Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011, p. 33.
- ^
Cf. Carol Jacobs,
Sebald's Vision
. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2015, p. 72 and
passim
.
- ^
as represented,
e.g.
, by
Richard von Weizsacker
and
Jurgen Habermas
.
- ^
W.G. Sebald,
"Auf ungeheuer dunnem Eis." Gesprache 1971 bis 2001
, ed. Torsten Hoffmann, Frankfurt/M.: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 2011, p. 260: "Ich sehe die von den Deutschen angerichtete Katastrophe, grauenvoll wie sie war, durchaus nicht als Unikum an ? sie hat sich mit einer gewissen Folgerichtigkeit herausentwickelt aus der europaischen Geschichte und sich dann, aus diesem Grunde auch, hineingefressen in die europaische Geschichte."
- ^
W.G. Sebald,
"Auf ungeheuer dunnem Eis." Gesprache 1971 bis 2001
, ed. Torsten Hoffmann, Frankfurt/M.: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 2011, p. 77: "Ich hasse [...] den deutschen Nachkriegsroman wie die Pest." Ironically, Sebald received the
Heinrich-Boll-Preis
in 1997.
- ^
Peter Morgan distinguishes the "novel"
Austerlitz
from the "prose narratives"
Vertigo
,
The Emigrants
and
The Rings of Saturn
('The Sign of Saturn: Melancholy, Homelessness and Apocalypse in W.G. Sebald's Prose Narratives.' In: Franz-Josef Deiters (ed.),
Passagen: 50 Jahre Germanistik an der Monash Universitat.
St. Ingbert: Rohrig, 2010, pp. 491?517, p. 491).
- ^
Wood, James (29 May 2017).
"W.G. Sebald, Humorist"
.
The New Yorker
. Retrieved
7 September
2019
.
- ^
McCulloh, Mark Richard (2003).
Understanding W. G. Sebald
. University of South Carolina Press. p. 66.
ISBN
1-57003-506-7
. Retrieved
23 December
2007
.
- ^
Lynne Sharon Schwartz (ed.),
The Emergence of Memory: Conversations with W.G. Sebald
, New York, NY/London/Melbourne/Toronto 2007, p. 166.
- ^
"Sebald's Voice"
, 17 April 2007
- ^
"Among Kafka's Sons: Sebald, Roth, Coetzee"
, 22 January 2013; review of
Three Sons
by Daniel L. Medin,
ISBN
978-0810125681
- ^
"Netting the Butterfly Man: The Significance of Vladimir Nabokov in W. G. Sebald's The Emigrants"
by Adrian Curtin and Maxim D. Shrayer, in
Religion and the Arts
, vol. 9, nos. 3?4, pp. 258?283, 1 November 2005
- ^
Gutbrod, Hans (31 May 2023).
"Sebald's Path in Wertach -- Commemorating the Commemorator"
.
Cultures of History Forum
.
doi
:
10.25626/0146
(inactive 31 January 2024)
. Retrieved
6 June
2023
.
{{
cite journal
}}
: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (
link
)
- ^
Jo Catling; Richard Hibbitt, eds. (2011).
Saturn's Moons, W. G. Sebald - A Handbook
. Translated by Hamburger, Michael. Legenda. p. 659.
ISBN
978-1-906540-0-29
.
- ^
"Patience (After Sebald): watch the trailer ? video"
,
The Guardian
(31 January 2012)
General and cited sources
[
edit
]
- Arnold, Heinz Ludwig (ed.).
W. G. Sebald
. Munich, 2003 (
Text+Kritik
. Zeitschrift fur Literatur. IV, 158). Includes bibliography.
- Bewes, Timothy. "What is a Literary Landscape? Immanence and the Ethics of Form".
differences
, vol. 16, no. 1 (Spring 2005), 63?102. Discusses the relation to landscape in the work of Sebald and Flannery O'Connor.
- Bigsby, Christopher.
Remembering and Imagining the Holocaust: The Chain of Memory
. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2006.
- Blackler, Deane.
Reading W. G. Sebald: Adventure and Disobedience
. Camden House, 2007.
- Breuer, Theo
, "Einer der Besten. W. G. Sebald (1944?2001)" in T.B., Kiesel & Kastanie.
Von neuen Gedichten und Geschichten
, Edition YE 2008.
- Denham, Scott and Mark McCulloh (eds.).
W. G. Sebald: History, Memory, Trauma
. Berlin, Walter de Gruyter, 2005.
- Grumley, John, "Dialogue with the Dead: Sebald, Creatureliness, and the Philosophy of Mere Life",
The European Legacy
, 16,4 (2011), 505?518.
- Jacobs, Carol
.
Sebald's Vision
. New York: Columbia University Press, 2017.
- Long, J. J.
W. G. Sebald: Image, Archive, Modernity
. New York, Columbia University Press, 2008.
- Long, J. J. and Anne Whitehead (eds.).
W. G. Sebald: A Critical Companion
. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2006.
- McCulloh, Mark R.
Understanding W. G. Sebald
. University of South Carolina Press, 2003.
- Patt, Lise et al. (eds.).
Searching for Sebald: Photography after W. G. Sebald
. ICI Press, 2007. An anthology of essays on Sebald's use of images, with artist's projects inspired by Sebald.
- Wylie, John. "The Spectral Geographies of W. G. Sebald".
Cultural Geographies
, 14,2 (2007), 171?188.
- Zaslove, Jerry. "W. G. Sebald and Exilic Memory: His Photographic Images of the Cosmogony of Exile and Restitution".
Journal of the Interdisciplinary Crossroads
, Vol. 3 (No. 1) (April 2006).
- Rupprecht, Caroline. “Silkworms and Concentration Camps: W.G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn and Austerlitz” Asian Fusion: New Encounters in the Asian-German Avant-garde, Peter Lang, 2020. 33-54.
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