The metaphysical noir of w. G. Sebald’s Vertigo

• Autores: Graley Herren
• Localización: Knjizevna istorija = Literary History, ISSN 0350-6428, Nº. 159, 2016, págs. 311-338
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This essay examines the metaphysical noir of W. G. Sebald’s novel Vertigo. Sebald’s genre-bending book assumes the guise of memoir and travelogue but is in fact an innovative hybrid of murder mystery, psychological thriller, and philosophical treatise on memory, history, identity, and moral culpability. Sebald’s quasi-autobiographical narrator W. is subtly implicated as apossible victim or even co-conspirator with the murderous neo-Nazi group Organizzazzione Ludwig. These morbid fantasies serve as an oblique meditation upon the roots, consequences, and disturbing legacy of fascism and the Holocaust