W. G. Sebald

W. G. Sebald
W.G. Sebald
Born 18 May 1944(1944-05-18)
Wertach im Allgäu,
Germany
Died 14 December 2001(2001-12-14) (aged 57)
Norfolk, England,
United Kingdom
Occupation writer, academic
Nationality Germany German

W. G. (Winfried Georg) Maximilian Sebald (18 May 1944, Wertach im Allgäu – 14 December 2001, Norfolk, England) was a German writer and academic. At the time of his death at the age of 57, he was being cited by many literary critics as one of the greatest living authors and had been tipped as a possible future winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. In a 2007 interview, Horace Engdahl, former secretary of the Swedish Academy, mentioned Sebald, Ryszard Kapuściński and Jacques Derrida as three recently deceased writers who would have been worthy laureates.[1]

Contents

Life

Sebald grew up in Wertach, Bavaria, one of four children of Rosa and Georg Sebald. From 1948 to 1963, he lived in Sonthofen.[2] His father joined the Reichswehr in 1929 and remained in the Wehrmacht under the Nazis. His father remained a detached figure, a prisoner of war until 1947; a grandfather was the most important male presence in his early years. 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 post-war Germany loom large in his work.

Sebald studied German literature at the University of Freiburg, where he received a degree in 1965.[3] He was a research student at the University of Manchester from 1966 to 1969. He returned to Germany for a year hoping to work as a teacher but could not settle. In 1970 he became a lecturer at the University of East Anglia (UEA). He married Ute in 1967. 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.

Sebald died in a car crash near Norwich in December 2001, losing control after suffering a heart attack.[4] He was driving with his daughter Anna, who survived the crash. He is buried in St. Andrew's churchyard in Framingham Earl, close to where he lived.

Work

Sebald's works are largely concerned with the theme of memory, both personal and collective. 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 (1997), he wrote a major 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.

His distinctive and innovative novels were written in German but are well-known in English translations, principally by Anthea Bell and Michael Hulse, which he supervised closely. They include Austerlitz, The Rings of Saturn, The Emigrants and Vertigo. 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 traveling around Europe. They also have a dry and mischievous sense of humour.

Sebald was also the author of three books of poetry: For Years Now with Tess Jaray (2001), After Nature (2002), and Unrecounted (2004).

Works

  • 1988 After Nature. London: Hamish Hamilton. (Nach der Natur. Ein Elementargedicht) English ed. 2002
  • 1990 Vertigo. London: Harvill. (Schwindel. Gefühle) English ed. 1999
  • 1992 The Emigrants. London: Harvill. (Die Ausgewanderten. Vier lange Erzählungen) English ed. 1996
  • 1995 The Rings of Saturn. London: Harvill. (Die Ringe des Saturn. Eine englische Wallfahrt) English ed. 1998
  • 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)
  • 2001 For Years Now. London: Short Books.
  • 2003 Unrecounted London: Hamish Hamilton. (Unerzählt, 33 Texte) English ed. 2004
  • 2003 Campo Santo. London: Hamish Hamilton. (Campo Santo, Prosa, Essays) English ed. 2005

Influences

The works of Jorge Luis Borges, especially "The Garden of Forking Paths" and "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius", were a major influence on Sebald. (Tlön appears in The Rings of Saturn.)[5]


Notes

  1. ^ Tidningen Vi - STÄNDIGT DENNA HORACE!
  2. ^ W.G. Sebald, Schriftsteller und Schüler am Gymnasium Oberstdorf
  3. ^ Eric Homberger, "WG Sebald," The Guardian, 17 December 2001, accessed 9 October 2010.
  4. ^ http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8893163.html
  5. ^ McCulloh, Mark Richard (2003). Understanding W. G. Sebald. University of South Carolina Press. p. 66. ISBN 1570035067. http://books.google.com/books?id=4JTdWubfiNMC. Retrieved 2007-12-23. 

References

  • Arnold, Heinz Ludwig (ed.). W. G. Sebald. Munich, 2003 (Text + Kritik. Zeitschrift für 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.
  • 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, 3,1 (2006).

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Sebald de Weert — Desembarco de Sebald de Weert en Matecalo/Batticaloa Nacimiento …   Wikipedia Español

  • Sebald de Weert — Sebald or Sebalt de Weert (May 2 1567, Antwerp May 30 or June 1603, Batticaloa) was a Dutch captain and vice admiral of the Dutch East India Company (known in Dutch as Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagnie , VOC). He is most widely remembered for… …   Wikipedia

  • Sebald — ist ursprünglich ein deutscher Vorname. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Herkunft 2 Personen mit Vornamen Sebald 3 Personen mit Familiennamen Sebald 4 Siehe auch …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Sebald Fyoll — (* zwischen 1400 und 1410 in Nürnberg; † 1462 in Frankfurt am Main; auch Sebald Fyol) war ein Maler der Spätgotik in Frankfurt am Main. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 2 Werk 3 Literatur …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Sebald Pögl der Jüngere — Sebald Pögl, Freiherr von Reifenstein (* ca. 1490; † 1. Juni 1540) war ein steirischer Hammerherr und Waffenfabrikant.[1] Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 2 Religion 3 Familie …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Sebald Heyden — (* 8. Dezember 1499 in Bruck, heute Stadtteil von Erlangen; † 9. Juli 1561 in Nürnberg) war ein deutscher Kantor, Schulleiter und geistlicher Dichter. Heyden absolvierte ein Studium in Ingolstadt, das er mit dem …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Sebald De Weert — (1567 1603) fut un navigateur hollandais de la fin du XVIe siècle. Biographie Né à Anvers, Sebald de Weert fit partie d une expédition de découverte (1598), et laissa son prénom à trois îles du détroit de Magellan (les îles Sebaldines,… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Sebald — can refer to:*Saint Sebaldus of Nuremberg *W. G. Sebald (1944 2001), German academic and writer *William J. Sebald *Hans Sebald Beham …   Wikipedia

  • Sebald Rutgers — Sebald Justinus Rutgers (1879 1961) fue un teórico y periodista marxista holandés que tuvo un importante papel en el ala izquierda del Partido Socialista de América. Fue asimismo un ingeniero, activo en la industria de construcción en la Unión… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Sebald Bopp — (d. 1502) was a German painter active around Bamberg. Little is known about him; his name is first recorded in Würzburg, where he was listed as a journeyman in 1474, but his earliest known work remains in his native town. This is a depiction of… …   Wikipedia

  • Sebald Pögl — ist der Name folgender Personen: Sebald Pögl der Ältere ( 1460– 1510), steirischer Waffenfabrikant Sebald Pögl der Jüngere ( 1490–1540), steirischer Hammerherr und Waffenfabrikant Diese Seite ist eine Begriffsklärung z …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”