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Master Document Template Copyright by Robert George Kohn 2012 The Dissertation Committee for Robert George Kohn Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: The Language of Uncertainty in W.G. Sebald’s Novels Committee: Pascale Bos, Supervisor Sabine Hake John Hoberman Philip Broadbent David Crew The Language of Uncertainty in W.G. Sebald’s Novels by Robert George Kohn, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2012 Dedication This dissertation would not have been possible without the amazing and generous support, both emotional and intellectual, as well as incredible patience of my lovely and kind wife, Nadine Cooper-Kohn. I would like to, therefore, dedicate this study to her as a small token of my gratitude for being at my side through it all. Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the following people for their help and contributions they have made to my intellectual and personal growth during my graduate career. First and foremost, I would like to recognize my wife, Nadine Cooper-Kohn for her steadfast support, inspiration and love throughout these past seven years. I would like to thank my adviser, Dr. Pascle Bos, for her patience and understanding throughout the process of writing, as well as for encouraging me during difficult times. The helpful feedback of Dr. Sabine Hake and Dr. John Hoberman inspired me and helped me to see this project through. I would like to thank the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin for its generous financial support, especially in awarding me the Berlin Fellowship, without which I would not have discovered the writing of W.G. Sebald and been able to make it the basis of my dissertation. In this regard, the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst deserves mention, as they funded the Berlin Fellowship in 2006-7 in conjunction with the Department of Germanic Studies. Also, I want to acknowledge the help of many graduate student colleagues, but especially Jan Uelzmann, Berna Gueneli, Mariana Ivanova, and Bradley Boovy for their friendship and helpful comments during our dissertation colloquium, as well as Guido Halder, Judith Atzler, Carla Ghanem, Vince Vanderheijden, Patrick Horton, and Elena Chandler for many inspiring conversations and support. In addition, I would not have been able to manage my technology problems nor my transition into parenthood without the incredible support and friendship of Jesse Ahrens. v The Language of Uncertainty in W.G. Sebald’s Novels Robert George Kohn, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2012 Supervisor: Pascale R. Bos This dissertation investigates two of W.G. Sebald’s novels, Die Ausgewanderten and Austerlitz as examples of a unique kind of Holocaust fiction by a non-Jewish German author. Sebald’s fiction represents a radically different German depiction of the Holocaust and its effects on Jewish victims, as it deconstructs critical discourse and debates about the Holocaust in Germany, establishing an ethical approach to Jewish suffering and the idea of coming to terms with the Nazi past in the German context. Through the narrative structure, ambiguity and the language of the German narrators, what I term its language of uncertainty, Sebald’s fiction avoids appropriating the Jewish voice as well as identifying with Jewish Holocaust victims and survivors, while giving voice to the underrepresented Jewish perspective in contemporary German literature. In addition, this dissertation examines competing discourses on representation, victimization and memory in regard to the Nazi past and views Sebald’s work as a critical response to these discussions. Indeed, Sebald’s fiction moves the discussion beyond the trope of Vergangenheitsbewältigung (“mastery of the past”), which has for so long dominated discussion of the Holocaust in Germany, towards a reconsideration of the victims, whose voice has been marginalized in the focus on the non-Jewish German handling of the Nazi past. vi Table of Contents Chapter One: Introduction .......................................................................................1 W.G. Sebald: A Biographical Sketch .............................................................9 Sebald’s Novels ............................................................................................11 Methodology and Structure of Analysis .......................................................15 Chapter Two: Overview and Contextualization of the Novels ..............................23 Approaches in Existing Scholarship to Sebald’s Literature .........................29 Memory ................................................................................................29 Trauma .................................................................................................33 Empathic Unsettlement ........................................................................36 Vergangenheitsbewältigung .................................................................38 Ethics....................................................................................................39 Reunification, Memory Debates and Victimization: Vergangenheitsbewältigung? ...............................................................44 Representation of the Holocaust in German Discourse ................................52 Koeppen Controversy ..........................................................................56 ‘Opfer’ Debate .....................................................................................59 Wilkomirski Debate .............................................................................62 Critical Response ..........................................................................................68 Chapter Three: Sebald’s Die Ausgewanderten ......................................................73 Contextualizing Sebald’s Novels ..................................................................73 Silence about the Holocaust in Postwar Germany ...............................73 Holocaust and Cultural Production about the Nazi Past in 1980s West Germany ......................................................................................77 Synopsis of Die Ausgewanderten .................................................................83 Narrative Structure ........................................................................................85 Narrative Mood and Voice: Reported Speech and Layers of Mediation ......89 Fictionalizing the Real, Images and Meta-Reflexivity .................................96 Autobiography? The Question of Ontology in Sebald’s Work ...........96 vii Fictionalizing Real Places ..................................................................100 Images ................................................................................................102 Meta-Reflexivity: The Self-Reflexive Narratives of Sebald .............104 Chapter Four: Sebald’s Austerlitz ........................................................................115 Synopsis ......................................................................................................115 Representation in Austerlitz: Fictionalizing Real Places ............................116 Memory and Visual Representation ...................................................127 Contingency and Coincidence as Ordering Principles .......................135 Subjective Language and Ambiguity ..........................................................138 Narrative Structure ......................................................................................145 Narrative Mood and Voice.................................................................148 Direct or Indirect Witness? The Use of Special Subjunctive Mood ..154 The Unreliable Narrator .....................................................................169 Unreliable or Unbelievable? The Memory of the Protagonist Austerlitz ...................................................................................................174 Chapter Five: From Die Ausgewanderten to Austerlitz .......................................182 Holocaust Victims as Witnesses: Constructing Jewish Identity .................182 Traumatic Memory? A Closer Look ...........................................................190 Ethical Representation and the Roles of the Narrator and Protagonist .......206 Witness and Testimony in Sebald’s Novels.......................................207 Vergangenheitsbewältigung? The Impossibility of Closure in Sebald’s Novels ............................................................................................................215 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................219 Sebald’s Literature as Response to Shortcomings in (German) Holocaust Fiction ................................................................................................219 Bibliography ........................................................................................................222 viii Chapter One: Introduction Über die Wintermonate 1990/91 arbeitete ich...an der im Vorhergehenden erzählten Geschichte Max Aurachs. Es war ein äußerst mühevolles, oft stunden- und tagelang nicht vom Fleck kommendes und nicht selten sogar rückläufiges Unternehmen, bei dem ich fortwährend geplagt wurde von einem immer nachhaltiger sich bemerkbar
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