W. G. Sebald

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W.G. Sebald
W.G. Sebald

W. G. (Winfred Georg Maximilian) Sebald (May 18, 1944, Wertach im Allgäu–December 14, 2001, Norfolk, United Kingdom) was a writer and academic. At the time of his early death at the age of 56, 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 for Literature. He preferred to be called 'Max', from one of his middle names, by family and friends.

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[edit] Life

Sebald grew up in Wertach Bavaria, one of four children of Rosa and Georg Sebald. From 1948 to 1963 he lived in Sonthofen[1]. 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. He was shown images of the Holocaust whilst at school in Oberstdorf and recalled that no one knew how to explain what they had just seen. The Holocaust and post-war Germany loomed large in Sebald's work.

Sebald studied literature at the universities of Freiburg, Germany, Fribourg, Switzerland and Manchester. He became an assistant lecturer at the University of Manchester in 1966 and settled in England permanently in 1970, joining the University of East Anglia. In 1987, he was appointed to a chair of German literature at UEA and, in 1989, became the founding director of the British Centre for Literary Translation. He lived at Wymondham and Poringland whilst at the UEA.

Sebald died in a car crash in 2001. He was driving together with his daughter, Anna, who survived the crash. He had married Ute in 1967. He is buried in St. Andrew's churchyard in Framingham Earl, close to where he lived.

[edit] Work

Sebald's works are largely concerned with the theme of memory, both personal and collective. They were 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 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 excellent English translations 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, which are set in evocative counterpoint to the narrative rather than illustrating it directly. All of his novels except The Emigrants are presented as observations and recollections made by Sebald while travelling around parts of Europe.

Sebald is also the author of three books of poetry: For Years Now (2001), After Nature (2002), and The Unrecounted (2004).

[edit] Influences

[edit] Bibliography

In both German and English, as compiled on this page and in Text+Kritik IV,158 (see below).

[edit] Sebald's Writings

[edit] Books

  • Campo Santo. Herausgegeben von Sven Meyer. München, Wien: Hanser, 2003.
Published posthumously.
  • Unerzählt. Zusammen mit Jan Peter Tripp. 33 Texte und 33 Radierungen. München, Wien: Hanser, 2003.
  • Unrecounted. In collaboration with Jan Peter Tripp. Penguin Books Ltd 2005.
  • Außer Land. Drei Romane und ein Elementargedicht: Die Ausgewanderten, Die Ringe des Saturn, Schwindel. Gefühle, Nach der Natur . Frankfurt am Main: Eicborn, 2001.
  • On the Natural History of Destruction: With Essays on Alfred Andersch, Jean Améry, and Peter Weiss. Translated by Anthea Bell. New York: Random House, 2003.
  • After nature. Translated by Michael Hamburger. London: Hamish Hamilton, 2001.
  • For years now: poems. Images by Tess Jaray. London: Short Books, 2001.
  • Austerlitz. Translated by Anthea Bell. New York : Random House, 2001.
  • Austerlitz. München: C. Hanser, 2001.
  • Vertigo. Translated by Michael Hulse. New York: New Directions, 1999.
  • Vertigo. Translated by Michael Hulse. London: Harvill Press, 1999.
  • The Rings of Saturn. Translated by Michael Hulse. New York: New Directions, 1999.
  • Luftkrieg und Literatur: mit einem Essay zu Alfred Andersch. München: C. Hanser, 1999.
  • Logis in einem Landhaus: über Gottfried Keller, Johann Peter Hebel, Robert Walser und andere. München: Hanser, 1998.
  • The Emigrants. Translated by Michael Hulse. London : Harvill Press, 1996.
  • The Emigrants. Translated by Michael Hulse. New York : New Directions, 1996.
  • Die Ringe des Saturn: eine englische Wallfahrt. Frankfurt am Main: Eichborn, 1995. (=Die andere Bibliothek 130)
  • Die Ausgewanderten: vier lange Erzählungen. Frankfurt am Main: Eichborn, 1992. (=Die andere Bibliothek 93)
  • Unheimliche Heimat : Essays zur österreichischen Literatur. Salzburg: Residenz Verlag, 1991.
  • Schwindel, Gefühle. Frankfurt am Main: Eichborn, 1990. (=Die andere Bibliothek 63)
  • Nach der Natur: ein Elementargedicht. Photographien von Thomas Becker. Nördlingen: Greno, 1988.
  • A Radical stage: Theatre in Germany in the 1970s and 1980s. Edited by W.G. Sebald. Oxford; New York: Berg; New York: St. Martin's, 1988.
  • Die Beschreibung des Unglücks: zur österreichischen Literatur von Stifter bis Handke. Salzburg: Residenz Verlag, 1985.
  • Der Mythus der Zerstörung im Werk Döblins. Stuttgart: Klett, 1980. (=Literaturwissenschaft - Gesellschaftswissenschaft 45).
  • Carl Sternheim; Kritiker und Opfer der Wilhelminischen Ära. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer [1969].

[edit] About Sebald

  • Heinz Ludwig Arnold (ed.): W. G. Sebald. München, 2003. (=Text + Kritik. Zeitschrift für Literatur. IV, 158).
Includes bibliography.

[edit] External links


Sebald in News from the Republic of Letters:

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