Thickness of appearance: W.G. Sebald and photography as literary material

Abstract

To the original combination of interests and influences which characterize the work of the german writer Winfried Georg Sebald (1944-2001) we must add his peculiar use of photographic images. A close analysis demonstrates to which extent this kind of images play a determining role not only in the narration itself, but also in the author´s conceptual schema, for they act as agents to express existential, aesthetical and political contents which fit into the romantic tradition and into the german Critical Theory.