A Literature of Restitution: Critical Essays on W. G. Sebald - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719088526 ISBN 13: 9780719088520

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2013

Synopsis

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.

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About this title

About the Authors

Valerie Henitiuk is Director of the Faculty Commons at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, Canada, where she also holds an academic appointment in English

Ben Hutchinson is Professor of European Literature at the University of Kent

From the Back Cover

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0719088526
• ISBN 13: 9780719088520
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320
• Editor: Baxter Jeannette, Henitiuk Valerie, Hutchinson Ben