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 Vol.8 

Memory, Melancholy and Pictorial Illustrations: W. G. Sebald


Author
Mei-Ling Wang
Synopsis

The contemporary German writer W.G. Sebald and Professor of German Literature at the East Anglia University in England was killed in an automobile accident in 2001. He was widely known in the German-speaking world for his genre-crossing works of creative prose as well as for his literary criticism. Not long after his fictional work Schwindel. Gefühle was published in 1990, Sebald had become popular in the literary world and his works met with nearly universal acclaim. The topics of his fiction are concerned mostly with the trauma of history, the remnant of the past, migration, and melancholy in the restless and mourning mind of a wandering individual.This study is an attempt to first introduce Sebald's importance as a writer, the theme in his works. Secondly, to focus the interpretation on his work: Schwindel. Gefühle. Thirdly, to trace the intention of Sebald's use of pictorial illustrations, and, through the geographical space afforded by travel, to view the narrator's 'journey of mind'. The purpose of my study is also to discover how Sebald combines biographical recollections with his own memory and experiences to build a mood of portentous sadness and evoke a sense of morality.