Verschachtelte Räume
Subtitle: Writing and Reading Environments in W. G. Sebald
Contributors: Ryan, Judith; Simons, Oliver; Wilczek, Markus
Published: 2012
Language: eng
Description: This dissertation focuses on the construction of the narrated environment in W. G. Sebald's <italic.Die Ausgewanderten, Die Ringe des Saturn,</italic.> and Austerlitz</italic.. Drawing on a constellation of ecocritical theories, I examine the ways in which memory and history are embedded in images of the built environment and how, in turn, this spatialization of the past contributes to a criticism of traditional linear narration. Sebald's texts create postmodern textual environments, urban, domestic, faux-pastoral, and heterotopian, that unite disparate times and spaces, demonstrating the need for innovative narrative in untangling and portraying complex, sometimes contradictory layers of history.
Notes: Keywords: environment, German culture, German history, memory, W. G. Sebald.

Thesis Ph.D. Harvard University 2012