Silent Catastrophes - Essays in Austrian Literature

<From acclaimed critic, novelist and academic W. G. Sebald, author of


As a German in self-chosen exile from his country of birth, Sebald found a particular affinity with these writers from a neighbouring nation. The traumatic evolution of Austria from vast empire to diminutive Alpine republic, followed by its annexation by Nazi Germany, meant that concepts such as ''home/land'', ''borderland'' and ''exile'' occupy a prominent role in its literature, just as they would in Sebald''s own.

Through a series of remarkable close readings of texts by Bernhard, Stifter, Kafka, Handke, Roth and more, Sebald charts both the pathologies which so often drove their work and the seismic historical forces which shaped them. This sequence of essays will be a revelation to Sebald''s English-language readers, tracing as they do so many of the themes which animate his own literary writings, to which these essays form a kind of prelude.

Unhappiness and misfortune are at the heart of

Product details

• Authors: W G Sebald, W. G. Sebald, Sebald W. G.
• Assisted by: Jo Catling (Translation)
• Publisher: Penguin Books Uk
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Release: 22.01.2026
• EAN: 9780141037028
• ISBN: 978-0-14-103702-8
• No. of pages: 240
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 198 mm x 15 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; austria, Germany, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Essays, LITERARY CRITICISM / European / German, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 20th Century, HISTORY / Europe / Austria & Hungary, Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999, Literary studies: general, Literary essays