List of Abbreviations List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Sebald’s Literary Séance 1. Wittgenstein’s Ghost: Toward Understanding Sebald’s Literary Turn 2. The Birth of the Prose Fictionalizer from the Spirit of Biographical Criticism: Schwindel. Gefühle 3. Sebald’s Literary Refinement: “Dr. Henry Selwyn” and Its Textual Predecessor 4. Neither Here Nor There: Exile as Dis-Placement in “Dr. Henry Selwyn” 5. Sebald’s Ectopia: Homelessness and Alienated Heritage in “Max Aurach”/“Max Ferber” 6. Fabulation and Metahistory: W. G. Sebald and the Problematic of Contemporary (German) Holocaust Fiction 7. Sebald’s Segues: Performing Narrative Contingency in Die Ringe des Saturn 8. Writing at the Roche Limit: Order and Entropy in Die Ringe des Saturn 9. Narrating Environmental Catastrophe: Ecopsychology and Ecological Apocalypse in Sebald’s Corsica Project Bibliography Index

A truly magisterial scholarly work on a writer who continues to inspire a small industry of academic labor… In his new 464-page book Gray has produced what may very well be the definitive text on Sebald for both languages and readerships.

A comprehensive study of W. G. Sebald’s prose fictions, including published and unpublished works, with a focus on the genetic development of his artistic practices and their relationship to his interests in history, memory, and exile.

A comprehensive approach to W. G. Sebald’s prose fictions as a complex body of work and a deep examination of how Sebald’s fictions emerge from his scholarly practices and mature over the course of his writing career

This series offers a forum for the publication of new works in all areas of German Studies (German, Austrian, and Swiss literature, culture, and cinema from any period). New Directions in German Studies welcomes proposals that offer a fresh perspective on any vibrant aspect of the field. A long and venerable tradition of "Germanistik" has been opened up in exciting ways in the past few decades. The series taps into that tradition and its growth into German Studies, reframing aspects of the discipline in light of concerns germane to these fields: German, Austrian, or Swiss national identity and aesthetics; historical approaches to German-language literature and cinema; the legacy of the Holocaust and its influence on aesthetics; politics and aesthetics; issues of canonization and periodization; the place of gender, queer, and postcolonial studies within German Studies; the aesthetics of exile; myth and national identity; cross-cultural dialogues and aesthetics; material culture; German-language aesthetics and globalization. New Directions in German Studies incorporates interdisciplinary approaches to the analysis of the rich intellectual and cultural histories of the German-speaking countries. The series showcases studies focusing on hitherto underrepresented authors, as well as projects that seek to reframe canonical works in light of new perspectives and methodologies. Editorial Board: Katherine Arens, Roswitha Burwick, Richard Eldridge, Erika Fischer-Lichte, Catriona MacLeod, Stephan Schindler, Heidi Schlipphacke, Andrew J. Webber, Silke-Maria Weineck, David Wellbery, Sabine Wilke, John Zilcosky