Faculty Scholarship
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Književna istorija [Literary History]
Volume
159
Publication Date
2017
Abstract
This essay examines the metaphysical noir of W. G. Sebald’s novel Vertigo. Sebald’s genre-bending book assumes the guise of memoir and travelogue but is in fact an innovative hybrid of murder mystery, psychological thriller, and philosophical treatise on memory, history, identity, and moral culpability. Sebald’s quasi-autobiographical narrator W. is subtly implicated as a possible victim or even co-conspirator with the murderous neo-Nazi group Organizzazzione Ludwig. These morbid fantasies serve as an oblique meditation upon the roots, consequences, and disturbing legacy of fascism and the Holocaust.
Recommended Citation
Herren, Graley, "“The Metaphysical Noir of W. G. Sebald’s Vertigo”" (2017). Faculty Scholarship. 566.
https://www.exhibit.xavier.edu/english_faculty/566
