Sebald's bachelors : queer resistance and the unconforming life / Helen Finch.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Finch, Helen (Helen Cleugh), author.

Contributor:

Modern Humanities Research Association.

Series:

Germanic literatures ; 2.

Germanic literatures ; 2

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sebald, W. G. (Winfried Georg), 1944-2001--Criticism and interpretation.

Sebald, W. G.

Sebald, W. G. (Winfried Georg), 1944-2001.

Gay men in literature.

Single men in literature.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

x, 141 pages ; 26 cm.

Place of Publication:

London : Legenda, 2013.

Summary:

Why do queer bachelors and homosexual desire haunt the works of the German writer W. G. Sebald (1944-2001)? In a series of readings of Sebald's major texts, from 'After Nature' to 'Austerlitz', Helen Finch's pioneering study shows that alternative masculinities subvert catastrophe in Sebald's works. From the schizophrenic poet Ernst Herbeck to the alluring shade of Kafka in Venice, the figure of the bachelor offers a form of resistance to the destructive course of history throughout Sebald's critical, and literary writing. Sebald's poetics of homosexual desire trace a 'line of flight' away from the patriarchal and repressive order of German society, which, in Sebald's view, led to the disasters of Nazism. This study shows that the potential for subversion personified by Sebald's solitary males is essential for understanding his work, while also demonstrating the contribution that Sebald made to the German tradition of queer writing. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 W. G. Sebald's Lehijahre: Bourgeois Sexuality and its Discontents 19

2 Bachelors in Feather Boas: Masculinity Gone Astray 42

3 The Ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah: Queer Orientalism and Colonialism 66

4 Eros in Venice: The Strange Case of Dr S. and Dr K. 92.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 132-138) and index.

ISBN:

9781907975905

190797590X

OCLC:

851694296