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W. G. Sebald (Winfried Georg Sebald)

せばると だぶりゅーじー

W. G. Sebarudo (Winfried Georg Sebald)

Aliases: Max Sebald
Pen Names: Max Sebald（A name he preferred personally and among friends; he sometimes used or accepted this form.）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1944-05-18 （Wertach, Bavaria, Germany）
Died
2001-12-14 （Norfolk (near Norwich), England） age 57
Nationality
German
Languages
German, English
Residence History
Sonthofen (childhood) → St. Gallen (briefly) → Wymondham / Poringland (near Norwich, UK) → Wertach (birthplace)

Career

Occupations
Writer, Academic (literature professor/lecturer)
Active Years
1966-2001
Affiliations
University of East Anglia (UEA), British Centre for Literary Translation (founding director)
Influenced By
Jorge Luis Borges, Thomas Bernhard, Franz Kafka, Vladimir Nabokov, Gottfried Keller, Adalbert Stifter, Heinrich von Kleist, Jean Paul

Education

University of Freiburg
German and English literature
Country: Germany
University of Fribourg
Literature
Degree: Degree (graduated)
Period: 1964–1965
Year of Graduation: 1965
Country: Switzerland
Degree awarded in 1965
University of East Anglia (UEA)
Comparative literature / English and German literature (PhD)
Degree: PhD
Period: 1969–1973
Year of Graduation: 1973
Country: United Kingdom
PhD thesis: 'The Revival of Myth: A Study of Alfred Döblin's Novels'
University of Hamburg
Literature (habilitation)
Degree: Habilitation
Year of Graduation: 1986
Country: Germany
Awarded habilitation in 1986

Awards

Heinrich Böll Prize
1997
Organization: Heinrich Böll Prize committee
Result: 受賞
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
2002
Work: Austerlitz (English translation by Anthea Bell)
Organization: The Independent (award)
Result: 受賞（英訳版に対して）

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Vertigo (Schwindel. Gefühle)

1990 Prose (prose narratives / fiction) 160 pages

A collection of linked prose narratives about journeys and recollections, blending memory and loss with historical fragments. Photographs punctuate the text and blur fact and fiction.

memorylosstravelhistorical fragments
Translations
  • English translation: Vertigo (Anthea Bell et al.)

The Emigrants (Die Ausgewanderten)

1992 Prose (linked long narratives) 176 pages

Four long narratives about emigrants and exile, intertwining personal memory with European history and frequent literary references.

exilememoryJewish history
Translations
  • English translation: The Emigrants (Anthea Bell)

The Rings of Saturn (Die Ringe des Saturn)

1995 Travelogue-like prose 224 pages

Beginning as a walk through East Anglia, it unfolds into a chain of historical anecdotes, natural history, and personal recollection; prose interspersed with photographs.

journeydecayfragmented history
Translations
  • English translation: The Rings of Saturn (Michael Hulse et al.)

Austerlitz

2001 Novel / long prose 352 pages

A narrative centered on the amnesiac protagonist Austerlitz, intertwining personal memory with Europe's history of atrocity. Noted for long-period sentences, careful narration, and many photographs; it cemented Sebald's international reputation.

memoryHolocaust memoryidentity
Translations
  • English translation: Austerlitz (Anthea Bell)

Bibliography

  • Schwindel. Gefühle (1990) / Vertigo
  • Die Ausgewanderten (1992) / The Emigrants
  • Die Ringe des Saturn (1995) / The Rings of Saturn
  • Austerlitz (2001)
  • After Nature (1988) [poetry]
  • Unrecounted (2003) [poetry / prose]
  • On the Natural History of Destruction (1999) [non-fiction]
  • Campo Santo (2003) [essays]
  • A Place in the Country (1998) [essays]

Adaptations

  • Documentary: Patience (After Sebald) (2011, dir. Grant Gee)

Translations of Works

  • Austerlitz — English translation by Anthea Bell
  • Vertigo, The Emigrants, The Rings of Saturn — English translations by Anthea Bell, Michael Hulse, etc.

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Documentary-fiction hybrid proseElaborate, long-period sentencesUse of black-and-white photographs juxtaposed with textDry, mischievous humor
Recurring Motifs
memory and forgettingdecay and collapsejourney and landscape descriptionsphotographs and archivesWorld War II and Holocaust memory

Health

  • congenital cardiac insufficiency (heart condition)
    生涯を通じて認識していたが晩年に特に悪化
    He was aware of a congenital heart condition, which he said made him conscious of leaving early; it contributed to his death from a heart attack in 2001.

Legacy

W. G. Sebald is internationally acclaimed for blending memory, loss, and fragments of history with personal recollection in a distinctive prose. His juxtaposition of photographs and text, long-period sentences, and treatment of the Holocaust and modern European history left a strong mark on contemporary literature.

Academic Societies

  • British Centre for Literary Translation

Archives

  • University of East Anglia archives (holds related materials)
  • British Library (holds English translations and related materials)

In Popular Culture

  • Sebaldweg walking route in Wertach
  • Sebald Copse at the University of East Anglia (commemorative tree and bench)
  • Documentary 'Patience (After Sebald)' (2011)

Quotes

  • “I do not see the catastrophe caused by the Germans, dreadful as it was, as a singular event — it developed with a certain logic from European history and then, for the same reason, ate itself into European history.”
    Source: Conversation collection 'Auf ungeheuer dünnem Eis. Gespräche 1971 bis 2001' (excerpt) (2011)

Trivia

  • He preferred the name 'Max Sebald' in private.
  • Publication of Austerlitz (2001) secured his international reputation.
  • He had a congenital heart condition and died of a heart attack in 2001.
  • Known for placing black-and-white photographs within texts to blur fact and fiction.