From Kafka to Sebald: Modernism and Narrative Form

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This volume is a response to a renewed interest in narrative form in contemporary literary studies, taking up the question of literary narratives and their encounters with modernism and postmodernism within the German-language milieu. Original essays written by scholars of German and Comparative Literature approach the issue of narrative form anew, analyzing the ways in which modernist and postmodernist German-language narratives frame and/or deconstruct historical narratives. Beginning with the German-language modernist author par excellence, Franz Kafka, the volume's essays explore the unique perspective on historical change offered by literature. The authors (Kafka, Kappacher, Goll, Schnitzler, Menasse, and Wolf, among others) and works interpreted in the essays included here span the period from before World War I to the post-Holocaust, post-Wall present. Individual essays focus on modernism, postmodernism, narrative theory, and autobiography.

Reviews

This wide-ranging, sophisticated anthology provides impetus to the renewed interest in a scholarly narratological approach to prose fiction. By drawing an ark between Franz Kafka and W. G. Sebald... Wilke projects a whole spectrum of diverse narrative experiments. Ten expert scholars contribute findings which can readily be applied to modern narratives beyond any single national literature. -- Guy Stern, Wayne State University, USA
From Kafka to Sebald is a thrilling contribution to the contemporary reinvigoration of narratology. What is more, it sheds light on the 'Kafka-effect' in German literature, by bringing Kafka's writing into dialogue with those who shared his Habsburg momentFreud, Hofmannsthal, Schnitzlerand then examining his legacy in authors such as Christa Wolf, Robert Menasse, and W.G. Sebald. The volume ultimately demonstrates deftly how modernism's formal innovations did not come out of thin air but were embedded profoundly in the historical traumas of twentieth-century Germany and Austria." -- John Zilcosky, Chair, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Toronto, Canada
"The topics of this volumenarrative, the subject, history, traumacombine to produce a cultural autobiography, a self-account that the world of German-language writing has offered in the century of modernism. Displaced from a problematic, self-described 'German' core, the authors discussed here demonstrate that the vitality of twentieth-century German literature derives from the richness and variety of writers who are, in the main, not at all (or not quite) German. Narrative becomes not only the vehicle but also the tenor of these essays. Autobiography describes how the subject is formed, whether in a novel by Christa Wolf or reflections by Walter Sokel; and it proposes a model for Kafka's "A Hunger Artist," or the 'small i' in Robert Menasse's work. This volume, a fitting tribute to Richard Gray from scholars of equal eminence, will appeal to all who see in modernism a telling of reality of both great power and a terrible beauty." -- Ruth V. Gross, Professor of German and Chair, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, North Carolina State University, USA.
With Kafka and Sebald in the title as well as an alluring black-and-white photograph taken from Sebalds Austerlitz on the dust jacket, this book immediately captures ones curiosity. From Kafka to Sebald [brings] together nine contributions on German-language modernist fiction ... The nine articles trace specific developments in German-language fiction of the twentieth century and present a variety of approaches and perspectives Taken together, the essays challenge the notion of narrative as a universal structure and illustrate how the critique of narrative encapsulates one of the defining aspects of twentieth-century modernist narrative forms This volumes overarching concern of narrative form within German-language modernist fiction will interest a broad spectrum of readers. -- Lynn L. Wolff * Monatshefte *
This collection of articles, written by well-known scholars, contributes to a literary analysis of historical practices without neglecting the aesthetic aspects. It illuminates various genres and demonstrates how narratives reflect societal practices symbolically and directly and how community norms are constituted and unconsciously internalized. On the whole, this useful collection serves the current interest in narration, as it brings together a number of different examples of literary interpretations in postmodern times from the genre point of view. -- Helga W. Kraft, University of Illinois at Chicago * Journal of Austrian Studies, Vol. 47, No. 1, Spring 2014 *

Author Bio

Sabine Wilke is Professor of German at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, where she is also associated with European Studies, and the Program in Critical Theory. Her research and teaching interests include modern German literature and culture, intellectual history and theory, and cultural studies. She has written books and articles on body constructions in modern German literature and culture, German unification, the history of German film and theater, contemporary German authors and filmmakers, German colonialism and the overlapping concerns of postcolonialism and ecocriticism.