Tikkun: W.G. Sebald‘s Melancholy Messianism A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Department of German Studies of the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences By Michael David Hutchins 2011 M.A., University of Cincinnati, 2006 B.A., Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, 2004 B.A. Pensacola Christian College, Pensacola, FL, 2000 Committee Chair: Dr. Sara Friedrichsmeyer, Professor University of Cincinnati Abstract Shortly before his death in 2001, W.G. Sebald made what amounts to a mission statement for his literary endeavors under the title ―Ein Versuch der Restitution‖ (An Attempt at Restitution). In this brief address, Sebald maintains that his work can be seen as an attempt to make amends for a history of catastrophe. I argue in this dissertation that Sebald‘s self- appointed and self-proclaimed mission of mending history‘s tragedies corresponds to a view of the modern world as broken and needing redemption that Sebald adopted as he read Max Horkheimer‘s and Theodor Adorno‘s Dialektik der Aufklärung (Dialectic of Enlightenment). Sebald came to see the modern world as broken by instrumental reason and in need of redemption. He rejected, however, the strategies others had adopted to realize a better world. Sebald remained estranged from organized religion, eschewed the kinds of political engagement adopted by his contemporaries, and ultimately even refused Horkheimer‘s and Adorno‘s own solution, the application of supposedly ‗healthy‘ reason to counteract instrumental reason. What was left to him was the creation of an idiosyncratic ―literature of restitution‖ which relied on willed association rather than on the discovery of causal relationships to structure the episodic narratives he collected and to reclaim individual histories from the anonymity of a history of calamity. This vision of a redemptive function for literature grew out of one of his early academic fascinations: the German-Jewish messianic discourse, particularly as it found expression in the work of Ernst Bloch, Martin Buber, Gershom Scholem and Franz Kafka. I will argue that Sebald‘s concept of the messiah, developed in his scholarly pursuits, played itself out in his imaginative literature as the adopting of a melancholic register. The paradoxical sensibility of hopeful despondency characterized a number of German-Jewish thinkers in the first quarter of the 20th century, all of whom informed, to one degree or another, Sebald‘s understanding of what constituted an ethical response to the disasters of human history. Sebald‘s goal in invoking this melancholia is to point toward a need for an as-yet impossible solution to ongoing human crimes (both against other humans and nature). The Hebrew term Tikkun— roughly translated as ―mending the world‖—to which Sebald refers in his early writing, represents the mission of the messiah; but this mission, rooted in the ancient world, is no longer as clear-cut and plausible in the wake of modernity and the seeming irrelevance of metaphysics. Melancholia is then both a signpost pointing to the need for redemption as well as a dirge born of the recognition that redemption has never seemed so unattainable. iii © Michael David Hutchins, 2011 All Rights Reserved iv Acknowledgements Though any statement of gratitude inevitably leaves some contributions unmentioned, the following persons and organizations made contributions without which the project would have been unthinkable. To these and to all who enabled me I extend my deepest thanks. For access to, and permission to reproduce material from Sebald‘s Nachlass and other original sources The Sebald Estate The Wylie Agency Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach am Neckar Die Deutsche Schillergesellschaft, e.V. The Gershom Scholem Archive of the Jewish National Library, Jerusalem For research funding Fulbright Kommission, Berlin The Institute for International Education, New York The Charles Phelps Taft Foundation, Cincinnati For work as committee members Prof. Sara Friedrichsmeyer, Ph.D., Chair (University of Cincinnati) Prof. Katharina Gerstenberger, Ph.D. (University of Cincinnati) Prof. Todd Herzog, Ph.D (University of Cincinnati) For advice as my Ersatz-Doktorvater in Germany Dr. Ulrich von Bülow For advice and common sense Andrea Fieler, Ph.D. Wesley Jackson Joshua Arnold Matthew Fehskens Isabel Gomez John Volck For support and encouragement David and Nancy Hutchins Calvin and Dawn Elkins For delight and curiosity Ezra Hutchins Most importantly Amanda Hutchins v Contents Introduction 2 Part One—The Development of a Messianic Mindset 1. Breaking and Mending the World: Dialectic of Enlightenment and the 36 Mission of Tikkun 2. Melancholia or Violence? W.G. Sebald and the Dangerous Promise of 62 the Messiah Part Two—The Mission Takes Shape 3. First Moves Toward a Literature of Restitution: Sebald‘s Poetry 96 4. ―Kant and television – they obviously don‘t go together‖: Sebald‘s 134 Dramas 5. Redemption Takes a Circular Path: Sebald‘s Prose 162 Conclusion 199 Bibliography 204 Appendix 239 vi List of Abbreviations Parenthetical references cite the German edition followed by it English counterpart: (AG 61 / E 40). Where English and German editions are denoted by a single abbreviation (Austerlitz, Campo Santo, Die Ringe des Saturn, and Unerzählt) citation will reference the German edition first, followed by the English: (A 19 / 11). (AG) Die Ausgewanderten. Vier lange Erzählungen. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1994. (A) Austerlitz. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 2003. English edition: translated by Anthea Bell. New York: Random House, 2001. (AN) After Nature. Translated by Michael Hamburger. New York: Random House, 2002. (BU) Die Beschreibung des Unglücks. Zur österreichischen Literatur von Stifter bis Handke. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 2003. (CS) Campo Santo. Edited by Sven Meyer. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 2006. English edition: translated by Anthea Bell. New York: Random House, 2005. (CSt) Carl Sternheim: Kritiker und Opfer der Wilhelminischen Ära. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1969. (E) The Emigrants. Translated by Michael Hulse. New York: New Directions, 1996. (FYN) For Years Now. Poems by W.G. Sebald. Images by Tess Jaray. London: Short Books, 2001. (LiL) Logis in einem Landhaus. Über Gottfried Keller, Johann Peter Hebel, Robert Walser und andere. Munich: Hanser, 1998. (LL) Luftkrieg und Literatur. Mit einem Essay zu Alfred Andersch. Munich: Hanser, 1999. (MZ) Der Mythus der Zerstörung im Werk Döblins. Stuttgart: Ernst Klett, 1980 (NH) On the Natural History of Destruction. With essays on Alfred Andersch, Jean Amery, and Peter Weiss. Translated by Anthea Bell. London: Hamish Hamilton, 2003. (NN) Nach der Natur. Ein Elementargedicht. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1995. (RS) Die Ringe des Saturn. Eine Englische Wallfahrt. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1997. English edition: The Rings of Saturn. Translated by Michael Hulse. New York: New Directions, 1998. (SG) Schwindel. Gefühle. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1994. (U) Unerzählt. 33 Texte und 33 Radierungen. Mit einem Gedicht von Hans Magnus Enzensberger und einem Nachwort von Andrea Köhler. Munich: Hanser, 2003. English edition: Unrecounted. Translated by Michael Hamburger. New York: New Directions, 2004. (ÜLW) Über das Land und das Wasser. Ausgewählte Gedichte 1964-2001. Edited by Sven Meyer. Munich: Hanser, 2008. (UH) Unheimliche Heimat. Essays zur österreichischen Literatur. Salzburg and Vienna: Residenz, 1991. (V) Vertigo. Translated by Michael Hulse. London: Harvill, 1999. To ease reading for Sebald‘s English-speaking audience, I have included English translations in parenthesis for all quoted primary and secondary literature. These have been taken from official translations wherever possible. Where no authorized translation is available, I have supplied my own rendering. vii Tikkun: W.G. Sebald‘s Melancholy Messianism ―In hassidic tales which gave the messianic figure perhaps its most vivid expression one encounters the unknown wanderer—his insignia the knapsack and the walking stick traversing the country or sitting in wayside inns uttering truth upon truth.‖ —W. G. Sebald, ―The Law of Ignominy‖ 1 Introduction: Encountering W. G. Sebald When I arrived at the University of Cincinnati in the fall of 2004 to begin graduate work, the literary career of Winfried Georg ―Max‖ Sebald1 had already blossomed to maturity, attracted an international readership, and suddenly been cut short by his death in 2001. I was not afforded the opportunity to experience Sebald‘s story while it was being lived, nor was I able to read his work as it was initially published. I first encountered Sebald not by going to a bookstore, but by borrowing a well-read copy of Die Ringe des Saturn from the university library, and discussing it in the Seminarraum under the mentorship of Dr. Sara Friedrichsmeyer, who had already published on the subject. That is to say, my study of Sebald‘s literary production represents a second phase in the ongoing process of Sebald‘s reception. A great deal of scholarly work has already been carried out, preparing the way for the kind of summing up that second generations of readers attempt. As a latecomer, then, I find it only fitting that I begin this present study of Sebald by acknowledging the wealth of previous scholarship and responding to its claims before venturing into new territory on my own. A Survey of Current Scholarship Anyone who surveys the impact of W.G. Sebald on the literary world observes—and it is now almost assuredly passé to do so—that scholarship on Sebald‘s oeuvre has grown to truly mountainous proportions since his death. This exponential expansion of scholarly interest in Sebald, which Lynn Wolff recently described as the ―virtual explosion of secondary literature‖ around Sebald‘s texts, means that sifting through the criticism that continues to churn out is 1 ―Max‖ was not a shortened version of ―Maximilian,‖ which some supposed to be one of Sebald‘s middle names, (see for example Blackler 2007, 53), but rather an invention of his. Richard Sheppard, a longtime friend of Sebald‘s, observes that Maximilian was never one of the author‘s names.