Strategies of Silence, and Collective Memory in W. G. Sebald's Prose
in: Deutschsprachige Gedächtnisliteratur im Spiegel der aktuellen Debatten: Widerläufige Formen der Erinnerung, Pichler Georg,Silos Ribas Lorena, Editor, Peter Lang Group, Berlin, pp.241-251, 2026
- Publication Type: Book Chapter / Chapter Vocational Book
- Publication Date: 2026
- Publisher: Peter Lang Group
- City: Berlin
- Page Numbers: pp.241-251
- Editors: Pichler Georg,Silos Ribas Lorena, Editor
- Istanbul University Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
The prose narratives of W. G. Sebald predominantly address the Jewish trauma in the context of the Holocaust. In The Emigrants, memories are erased by conventionally dominant memories. The gap between individual and collective memory is not only the subject of Sebald’s literary work, but also of his lectures. On The Natural History of Destruction can be seen as the flip side of his literary narratives. This chapter aims to demonstrate, on the basis of the aforementioned works, that the silence of collective memory serves to cover the chasm of the destroyed ones and buries them in a power narrative.
Keywords: memory, amnesia, narrative of power, W. G. Sebald