Ebook: W. G. Sebald: History, Memory, Trauma

The novelist, poet, and essayist W. G. Sebald (1944 - 2001) was perhaps the most original German writer of the last decade of the 20th century (''Die Ausgewanderten'', ''Austerlitz'', ''Luftkrieg und Literatur''). His writing is marked by a unique `hybridity' that combines characteristics of travelogue, cultural criticism, crime story, historical essay, and dream diary, among other genres. He employs layers of literary and motion picture allusions that contribute to a sometimes enigmatic, sometimes intimately familiar mood; his dominant mode is melancholy. The contributions of this anthology examine W. G. Sebald as narrator and pensive observer of history. The book includes a previously unpublished interview with Sebald from 1998.