W. G. Sebald and the writing of history

W. G. Sebald, frequently mentioned in the same breath as Franz Kafka and Vladimir Nabokov, is one of the most important European writers of recent decades. He has been lauded by such major cultural commentators as Susan Sontag and Paul Auster, and he has combined wide public appeal with universal critical acclaim. His work is concerned with questions of memory, exile, representation, and, above all else, history. But his approach to history is strikingly different from conventional historiographical writing on the one hand, and from the historical novel on the other. His texts are hybrid in nature, mixing fiction, biography, historiography, travel-writing and memoir, and incorporating numerous photographic images. This volume seeks to respond to the complexities of Sebald’s image of history by presenting essays by a team of international scholars, all of whom are acknowledged Sebald experts. It offers a unique and exciting perspective on the dazzling work of one of the major literary figures of our times. Anne Fuchs is Professor of German Literature and Culture at University College, Dublin J. J. Long is Professor of German at the University of Durham, UK