Ghostwriting - W. G. Sebald's Poetics of History

Ghostwriting provides the first comprehensive analysis of the fictional prose narratives of one of contemporary Germany''s most recognized authors, the emigre writer W. G. Sebald. Examining Sebald''s well-known published texts in the context of largely unknown unpublished works, and informed by documents and information from Sebald''s literary estate, this book offers a detailed portrait of his characteristic literary techniques and how they emerged and matured out of the practices and attitudes he represented in his profession as a literary scholar. The title "Ghostwriting" signals the convergence in Sebald''s works of a set of diverse historical questions, philosophical views, and literary practices. Many historical ghosts haunt Sebald''s narratives on the level of story. Moreover, Sebald''s narrator plays the role of a ghostwriter in the profound sense that his stories fictionally re-enact the histories of obscure, but once-living individuals whose lives they revitalize, and whose fates are tied up with the most virulent historical conjunctures of the modern world. This study thus seeks to comprehend the constitutive elements of Sebald''s "poetics of history," his implementation of literary tools for effective historical memorializing.>

Product details

• Authors: Richard T Gray, Richard T. Gray, Richard T. (University of Washington Gray, Richard T Gray
• Assisted by: Imke Meyer (Editor)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.05.2019
• EAN: 9781501352614
• ISBN: 978-1-5013-5261-4
• No. of pages: 464
• Series: New Directions in German Studies; New Directions in German Studi; New Directions in German Studi; New Directions in German Studies
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; Germany, LITERARY CRITICISM / Semiotics & Theory, LITERARY CRITICISM / European / German, LITERARY CRITICISM / Comparative Literature, Comparative Literature, german, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, Literary theory, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000, Literature: history and criticism