Following a discussion of three substantial new books on the writer W. G. Sebald, I reflect upon and try to develop ideas which the authors argue are central to Sebald’s recent published work, notably suffering, natural and humanly created cataclysms, narratorial tact, occlusion, reliability and restitution, and the experience of liberation.
BirdS (2016) W. G. Sebald: Melancholy’s seduction and the pleasures of comedy. In: Comedy and Trauma in Germany and Austria after 1945: The Inner Side of Mourning. Oxford: Legenda (MHRA), pp. 84–109.
2.
CatlingJHibbittR (eds) (2011) Saturn’s Moons: W. G. Sebald – A Handbook. London: Legenda (MHRA).
3.
CoeJ (1997) Tact. London Review of Books19(6): 24–5.
F[letcher]J (1995) Obituaries: Michael Henry Parkinson. French Studies49(1): 119.
6.
FranklinR (2007) Rings of smoke. In: SchwartzLS (ed.) The Emergence of Memory: Conversations with W. G. Sebald. New York: Seven Stories Press, pp. 119–43.
7.
GrenvilleA (2019) H. G. Adler’s England: Eindrücke eines Ahnungslosen in the context of exile writing. In: WolffLL (ed.) A Modernist in Exile: The International Reception of H. G. Adler (1910–1988). Cambridge: Legenda (MHRA), pp. 35–47.
8.
HessingJLenzenV (2015) Sebalds Blick. Göttingen: Wallstein. Reviewed in JES46(3–4): 413–16.
9.
HölderlinF (1966 [1800–1]) Brod und Wein. In: Poems and Fragments, trans., intro. and notes HamburgerM, bilingual edn. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, p. 243.
10.
JochM (2019) Sein Antrieb war das Bessermachen [Review of Annäherungen]. taz no. 12,014, 21August, p. 15.
SchütteU (2018a) W. G. Sebald. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
13.
SchütteU (2018b) Neues aus der Sebald-Industrie: Eine polemische Perspektive, [Fresh off the Sebald Production-Line: A polemical Perspective]. WeimarerBeiträge64(4): 617–27.
14.
S[cott]C (1995) Obituaries: Janine Roslind Dakyns. French Studies49(1): 118.
15.
SebaldWG (1974, GO) Die hölzernen Engel von East Anglia: Eine individuelle Bummeltour durch Norfolk und Suffolk. Die Zeit (Reise), 31: 38; (2011, ET) The carved wooden angels of East Anglia: a leisurely tour through Norfolk and Suffolk, ed. and trans. SheppardR. JES41(3–4): 243–54.
16.
SebaldWG (1995, GO) Die Ringe des Saturn: Eine englische Wallfahrt. Frankfurt am Main: Eichborn Verlag; (1998, ET) The Rings of Saturn, trans. HulseM. London: The Harvill Press.
17.
SebaldWG (1999, GO) Luftkrieg und Literatur: Mit einem Essay zu Alfred Andersch, Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag; (2003, ET) On the Natural History of Destruction: With Essays on Alfred Andersch, Jean Améry and Peter Weiss, trans. BellA. London: Hamish Hamilton.
18.
SheppardRW (2019) Review of Schütte U (2018a). JES49(1): 76–7.
