Abstract
This issue of the French literary review Europe is devoted to W. G. Sebald (pp. 3–231) and Tomas Tranströmer (b. 1931), the 2011 Swedish Nobel Laureate (pp. 233–305). As far as Sebald is concerned, the material to some degree reflects the relative lateness of his reception in France by providing Francophone readers with accessible versions of pieces to which they might otherwise not have ready access. Thus, of the 23 relatively brief contributions that deal with Sebald, one – Jean-Christophe Bailly’s ‘Le Troc silencieux de W. G. Sebald’ (pp. 168–9) – was originally published in Libération on 8 November 2007 and another (pp. 200–18) – Patrice Charbonneau’s fascinating account of his work as Sebald’s translator (2005) – first appeared in a special edition of a French academic journal. And a further four contributions are translations of items by established Sebald specialists that will, by now, be well known to his German and Anglophone readers: Christian Scholz’s ground-breaking conversation with Sebald (1997) (pp. 7–15); Ruth Klüger’s wide-ranging and sensitive survey of Sebald’s works (2003) (pp. 44–52); Ben Hutchinson’s authoritative essay on Sebald and the Frankfurt School (2011) (pp. 68–78) and Jo Catling’s careful review of Sebald’s surviving library (2011) (pp. 183–93). Of the other 17 items, at least six are concerned with aspects of Sebald’s work that have, over the years, been extensively discussed by non-French critics – notably his presentation of History (pp. 16–14; 25–33; 34–43 and 79–88), his deployment of melancholy (pp. 53–67) and his experience of exile (pp. 138–46). But of the other 11 contributions, seven explore relatively untrodden territory and should be brought to the attention of non-Francophone critics: Karine Winkelvoss’s ‘Pathos et théâtralité dans la prose de Sebald’ (pp. 92–103) argues that the idea of ‘Verfremdung’ (‘Alienation’) is central to Sebald’s work (p. 94) and discusses Sebald’s ambivalence towards ‘pathos théâtral’ because of its ‘fragilité éthique’ (p. 100); Muriel Pic shows how Sebald synthesizes documentary realism with elegiac lament (pp. 104–16); Emmanuel Boujou (pp. 117–30) enthusiastically proclaims what Sebald’s friends have known for a long time – that ‘il est temps … de se rendre compte que Sebald, [like Kafka], a de l’humour’ (p. 117) and discusses, albeit not exhaustively, some of the ways in which that quality functions in his work; Ruth Vogel-Klein (pp. 147–56) conducts the reader round Sebald’s authorial workshop, with special reference to his use of Paris, and in so doing de-crypts several of the hidden connections that Sebald makes between the Shoah and the French capital city; Martin Rass (pp. 157–67) discusses the presence, in Sebald’s seemingly silent universe, of ‘toutes sortes de bruits furtifs et incessants, de craquements sinistres, de chants pathétiques, d’ultimes raclements, qu’on entend seulement lorsque le vent ne souffle pas et qui annoncent la fin d’un monde dont ne subsistera qu’un tas de sciure’ (p. 164); Lucie Taïeb (pp. 176–84) is one of the first critics to offer a detailed discussion of Unerzählt, and concludes that this enigmatic collection of minimalist poems ‘peut donc apparaître comme l’envers de la prose de Sebald parce qu’elle fait signe vers tous les mondes perdus, vers toutes les histories non dites’ (p. 183); and Martina Wachendorff-Pérache, who first identified Sebald as a possible author for her Arles publishing company Actes Sud, offers a lively and interesting account of Sebald’s publication history in France.