A literature of restitution : critical essays on W. G. Sebald / / edited by Jeannette Baxter, Valerie Henitiuk and Ben Hutchinson

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910825303503321
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Manchester, UK : , : Manchester University Press, , 2015; ©2013
• ISBN: 1-5261-0204-8; 1-5261-0203-X
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (xvii, 296 pages) : illustrations, maps; digital file(s)
• Disciplina: 833.914
• Soggetti: Literature; Prose: Non-Fiction; LITERARY CRITICISM / General; Germany
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Introduction: 'A quoi bon la littérature?' -- Foreword: translating W. G. Sebald, with and without the author / Anthea Bell -- Part I: Translation and style -- 1. W. G. Sebald's three-letter word: on the parallel world of the English translations / Arthur Williams -- 2. Encounter and cry: W. G. Sebald as poet / George Szirtes -- 3. Unquiet prose: W. G. Sebald and the writing of the negative / Shane Weller -- Part II: Texts and contexts -- 4. Surrealist vertigo in Schwindel. Gefühle./ Jeannette Baxter -- 5. Memoirs of the blind: W. G. Sebald's Die Ausgewanderten / Dora Osborne -- 6. 'Like refugees who have come through dreadful ordeals': the theme of the Anglo-Irish in Die Ringe des Saturn. Eine englische Wallfahrt / Helen Finch -- 7. The 'Arca Project': W. G. Sebald's Corsica / Graeme Gilloch -- 8. Twisted threads: the entwined narratives of W. G. Sebald and H. G. Adler / Peter Filkins -- 9. Stations, dark rooms and false worlds in W. G. Sebald's Austerlitz / David Darby -- Part II: 'Prose' and photography -- 10. Fields of association: W. G. Sebald and contemporary performance practices / Simon Murray -- 11. Still life, portrait, photograph, narrative in the work of W. G. Sebald / Clive Scott -- 12. The return of the repressed mother in W. G. Sebald's fiction / ; Graley Herren -- 13. The question of genre in W. G. Sebald's 'prose' (towards a post-memorial literature of restitution) / Russell J. A. Kilbourn -- References -- Index.
• Sommario/riassunto: This book investigates the crucial question of 'restitution' in the work of W. G. Sebald. Written by leading scholars from a range of disciplines, with a foreword by his English translator Anthea Bell, the essays collected in this volume place Sebald's oeuvre within the broader context of European culture in order to better understand his engagement with the ethics of aesthetics. Whilst opening up his work to a range of under-explored areas including dissident surrealism, Anglo-Irish relations, contemporary performance practices and the writings of H. G. Adler, the volume notably returns to the original German texts. The recurring themes identified in the essays - from Sebald's carefully calibrated syntax to his self-consciousness about 'genre', from his interest in liminal spaces to his literal and metaphorical preoccupation with blindness and vision - all suggest that the 'attempt at restitution' constitutes the very essence of Sebald's understanding of literature.; "This book investigates the crucial question of 'restitution' in the work of W. G. Sebald. Written by a range of leading scholars from fields as various as translation studies, English, German, and comparative literature, photography, critical theory, psychoanalysis, poetry, and art theory, the essays collected in the volume place Sebald's oeuvre within the broader context of European culture in order better to understand his engagement with the ethics of aesthetics. Whilst opening up his work to a range of under-explored areas - including dissident surrealism, Anglo-Irish relations, contemporary performance practices, and the writings of H. G. Adler - the volume also brings renewed impetus to the standard view of Sebald as a 'Holocaust writer'; following the lead established by his English translator Anthea Bell in her foreword, the essays all share a close attention to linguistic detail, returning to the original German texts in an attempt to do justice to Sebald's complex literary style. The recurring themes identified over the course of the collection - from Sebald's carefully calibrated syntax to his self-consciousness about 'genre', from his interest in liminal spaces to his literal and metaphorical preoccupation with blindness and vision - all suggest that the 'attempt at restitution' is both a thematic preoccupation and a narrative technique, and that as such it arguably constitutes the very essence of Sebald's understanding of literature. The volume will thus appeal not only to students and scholars of Sebald, but to anyone with a serious interest in the problems and possibilities of postwar European writing." --Back cover.