<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Sebald’s first prose work, entitled <italic>Vertigo</italic> (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_ausp-2016-0005_ref_016_w2aab2b8c26b1b7b1ab1b1c16Aa"><italic>Schwindel. Gefühle</italic>, 1990</xref>) is perhaps the most intriguing in terms of the absence of clear-cut links between the four narrative segments: “Beyle; or Love is a Madness Most Discrete,” “All’estero,” “Dr. K Takes the Waters at Riva” and “Il ritorno in patria.” Beyle, i.e. Stendhal, Dr. K, i.e. Kafka, and the first-person narrator of the two quasi-autobiographical parts, are three subjects living in distinct times and places, whose journeys and experiences coalesce into a Sebaldian puzzle to solve, challenging the most varied interpretive terms and discourses, from the Freudian uncanny, through intertextuality (Kristeva) and the indexicality of photography (Barthes, Sontag), to the working of cultural memory (Assmann) and the non-places of what Marc Augé calls hypermodernity. By trying to disclose the discursive strategies of a profoundly elusive and highly complex narrative, the article is aimed at pointing out the rhetorical and textual connections lying at the heart of Sebald’s floating way of writing, heralding a vertiginous oeuvre, an unsettling literary journey.<xref ref-type="fn" rid="j_ausp-2016-0005_fn_001_w2aab2b8c26b1b7b1ab1aaAa"><sup>1</sup></xref></p></abstract>

Sebald’s first prose work, entitled Vertigo (Schwindel. Gefühle, 1990) is perhaps the most intriguing in terms of the absence of clear-cut links between the four narrative segments: “Beyle; or Love is a Madness Most Discrete,” “All’estero,” “Dr. K Takes the Waters at Riva” and “Il ritorno in patria.” Beyle, i.e. Stendhal, Dr. K, i.e. Kafka, and the first-person narrator of the two quasi-autobiographical parts, are three subjects living in distinct times and places, whose journeys and experiences coalesce into a Sebaldian puzzle to solve, challenging the most varied interpretive terms and discourses, from the Freudian uncanny, through intertextuality (Kristeva) and the indexicality of photography (Barthes, Sontag), to the working of cultural memory (Assmann) and the non-places of what Marc Augé calls hypermodernity. By trying to disclose the discursive strategies of a profoundly elusive and highly complex narrative, the article is aimed at pointing out the rhetorical and textual connections lying at the heart of Sebald’s floating way of writing, heralding a vertiginous oeuvre, an unsettling literary journey.1

Narrative Discourse, Memory and the Experience of Travel in W. G. Sebald’s <italic>Vertigo</italic>

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Narrative Discourse, Memory and the Experience of Travel in W. G. Sebald’s 

Sebald’s first prose work, entitled Vertigo (Schwindel. Gefühle, 1990) is perhaps the most intriguing in terms of the absence of clear-cut links between the...

Narrative Discourse, Memory and the Experience of Travel in W. G. Sebald’s Vertigo

Published Online: Dec 28, 2016

Page range: 67 - 78

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ausp-2016-0005

Keywords
travel, narrative, intertextuality, memory, photography, non-places

© 2016 Judit Pieldner, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Narrative Discourse, Memory and the Experience of Travel in W. G. Sebald’s Vertigo

Published Online: Dec 28, 2016

Page range: 67 - 78

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ausp-2016-0005

Keywordstravel, narrative, intertextuality, memory, photography, non-places

© 2016 Judit Pieldner, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
travel, narrative, intertextuality, memory, photography, non-places