Abstract

W G Sebald’s literary career, which was largely dedicated to exposing and attempting to work through the complexities of Germany’s National Socialist past, ended with the publication of his 2001 novel, Austerlitz. Sebald’s literary oeuvre, which includes biographical, autobiographical, historical and fictional elements, is difficult to categorise into any particular genre. Yet he is probably best known for his thorough and thoughtprovoking lamentation of Jewish suffering and trauma, in particular, his focus on the forgotten aspects of this past. These elements are present not only in Austerlitz, but also in his earlier work, Die Ausgewanderten. W G Sebald’s Austerlitz is certainly an ambitious memory text. Its unique aesthetic ability to act as a literary means of commemoration can be observed in the fact that it does not simply aim to provide a homogeneous well worn insight into a distant past. Instead, Sebald’s reliance on alternative memory sources combined with an imaginative narrative, serves to question the very substance of belated historical representations. Austerlitz’s complex textual structure − which consists of a mixture of fictional, mnemonic, intertextual and theoretical sources − will be analysed in order to form the core argument of this article. Namely, that memory texts such as Austerlitz serve the dual function of not only recounting individual or collective experiences, but, more importantly, they significantly contribute to the establishment of alternative literary means of memory retrieval and construction. Emphasis will also be placed on literature’s intrinsic ability to add further imaginative dimensions of understanding to an otherwise abstract past. In this sense, this paper will investigate whether Austerlitz allows for a multi-faceted reconstruction of the past to emerge and whether as an aesthetic text it is successful in assisting subsequent post-war generations in their attempt to not only commemorate but more importantly discover and delineate traumatic memories. By focusing on W G Sebald’s pioneering methods of recreating lost memories as a means of vicarious commemoration, the importance of how these memories come to be communicated into the wider cultural imagination is also of utmost importance to this investigation. Creating and recreating lost memories is a decisive aspect of the manner in which literature can truly serve to provide a deeper, more comprehensive insight into past suffering