Pleasure and Affinity in W. G. Sebald and Robert Walser
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7434627 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lucia Ruprecht (University of Cambridge, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 62 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 311-326 |
| Publication date | 2009-06-07 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | German Life and Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0016-8777 • E-ISSN: 1468-0483 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1468-0483.2009.01466.x |
| OpenAlex | W2029583144 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 10 |
This article addresses the dialectic between melancholia and pleasure in W. G. Sebald by focusing on the author's affinity with Robert Walser. It explores Sebald's intertextual incorporation of the lost literary friend as both re‐enactment of Walserian pleasures and consoling melancholic practice which is pleasurable in itself. Much of the specific delight that Walser offers is based on his exuberant and idiosyncratic style of writing, and his extraordinary sense of bodily movement. Excessive precision, digression, and kinaesthetic experience are singled out in order to investigate the textual and physical performances which are relevant for the kinds of subversive enjoyment that Walser passes on to Sebald. (Inter)textual analysis is framed by an engagement with Eric Santner's claim that Walser's figures have in some sense passed beyond the condition of ‘creatureliness’. In adapting especially Walser's gestures of politeness, Sebald reaffirms his predecessor's deterritorialisation of the force field between the sovereign and the creature, and pays homage to the deceased
| Citations per year | 0.06 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2010 - 2010 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |