Customer Reviews

Searching for Sebald

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This is a large, handsome book that focuses on W.G. Sebald's use of images, principally photographs, in his literature. The premise of the book is that Sebald's use of photographs was (almost) as ground-breaking in the field of the visual arts as his prose narratives (enhanced of course by his photographs) were in the field of literature. The book contains about forty articles or pieces dealing with, or illustrating, Sebald's use of images or how it has influenced others.

The articles vary considerably in quality, especially in the degree to which they are relatively free of, or freighted with, academic jargon and syntax. Alas, overall there is an excess of academic mumbo-jumbo - from individual words (e.g., "problematizes") to whole articles, one of which begins: "Presenting the ineluctable in writing constrains interpretation. The alterity of the text is both commanding and irremissible, to the point that criticism becomes ventriloquism; hermeneutics descends into chatter." (I guess that last phrase is self-referential . . . or unwittingly ironic.)

I read or skimmed fifteen of the articles/pieces. The best were the Introduction; "A Conversation with W.G. Sebald on Literature and Photography"; "The Enigmatic in Sebald's Use of Images in `The Emigrants'"; and "Pictures Remain and Live" (which includes a portfolio of photographic portraits of Sebald).

The lengthy Introduction, in particular, is worthwhile. It identifies and discusses various influences and sources for Sebald's use of images. Most interesting is its discussion of the evolution of Sebald's use of images through the four major prose narratives, as well as differences in presentation between editions, including two editions of the German publications of "Schwindel, Gefühle" ("Vertigo") and "Die Ausgewanderten" ("The Emigrants") and then the English editions of all four narratives. It highlights the subtle differences in the use and character of the images or photographs among Sebald's works, virtually all of which were the result of deliberate decisions by Sebald.

A patient reader also can gather much that adds to his understanding of Sebald's prose. Two personal examples:

Nabokov makes several fleeting appearances in "The Emigrants." Like the four subjects of the book, Nabokov was an exile. But his fate was different. "Not only did he find homes in his exile, but he was, in a sense, at home in the world. In `The Emigrants', he becomes a symbol for the possibility of life after exile. He is a `messenger of joy.'"

As I read "Austerlitz", I caught several of the allusions to Ludwig Wittgenstein, in addition to several explicit references. But reading SEARCHING FOR SEBALD revealed two more. On page 5 of the American edition of "Austerlitz", there are two pairs of human eyes -- the lower pair is from a photo of Wittgenstein. Second, as Austerlitz describes a period of writer's block, which he attributed to the inadequacies of language, he uses the analogy, "If language may be regarded as an old city full of streets and squares * * *." That was vaguely familiar to me. Now I learn (or am reminded) that it is from Wittgenstein's "Philosophical Investigations" (Part I, § 18).

As is evident from the above, SEARCHING FOR SEBALD is not for the newcomer to Sebald. To the contrary, its audience is probably limited to Sebald enthusiasts. For them, it can be recommended, even for the price -- in part because it is such a sumptuously produced volume, with high quality paper stock, intelligent lay-out, and a wealth of photographic illustrations.