The Undiscover'd Country: W. G. Sebald and the Poetics of Travel Book

List of Illustrations vii

Acknowledgments ix

List of Abbreviations xi

Introduction: Fluchtträume/Traumfluchten. Journeys to the Undiscover'd Country Markus Zisselsberger 1

Die Kunst des Fliegens W. G. Sebald 31

I Departures

1 Peripatetic Liminality: Sebald and the Tradition of the Literary Walk Christian Moser 37

2 W. G. Sebald: The Anti-Tourist J. J. Long 63

3 "A Wrong Turn of the Wheel": Sebald's Journeys of (In)Attention Carolin Duttlinger 92

II Textual Excursions, Expeditions, and Adventures

4 If You Come to a Spa: Displacing the Cure in Schwindel. Gefühle Austerlitz Martin Klebes 123

5 Campi deserti: Polar Landscapes and the Limits of Knowledge in Sebald and Ransmayr James Martin 142

6 "Eine Art Eingang zur Unterwelt": Katabasis in Austerlitz Alan Itkin 161

III Traveling Companions and Convergences

7 Convergence Insufficiency: On Seeing Passages between W. G. Sebald and the "Travel Writer" Bruce Chatwin Brad Prager 189

8 Tripping: On Sebald's "Stifter" Neil Christian Pages 213

9 Adventure, Imprisonment, and Melancholy: Heart of Darkness and Die Ringe des Saturn Margaret Bruzelius 247

IV Topographies and Theories

10 Mapping Historical Networks in Die Ringe des Saturn Barbara Hui 277

11 Topographical Anxiety and Dysfunctional Systems Die Ausgewanderten Freud's Little Hans Dora Osborne 299

12 While the Hidden Horrors of History are Briefly Illuminated: The Poetics of Wandering in Austerlitz and Die Ringe des Saturn Peter Arnds 322

Works Cited 345

Notes on the Contributors 371

Index 375