Für eine 'mindere' Literaturwissenschaft. WG Sebald und die 'kleine' Literatur aus der Österreichischen Peripherie, und von anderswo:WG Sebald and the 'small' literature from the Austrian periphery, and elsewhere

Abstract

W. G. Sebald’s special interest in marginal authors shaped his critical perception of Austrian postwar writers. Focusing on his critical writings on Herbert Achternbusch and the schizophrenic poet Ernst Herbeck—considered by Sebald as paradigms of a disregarded, “minor” form of literature—this essay demonstrates how on the one hand Sebald placed their texts within an anthropological context of an “untamed thinking” (pensée sauvage) and how on the other he sought to reverse the standard practice of evaluating the literary value of “minor” writers from the perspective of established authors. As this critical approach indirectly suggests, literary criticism needs to adopt a “minor” stance to be truly able to unlock the meaning of normally marginalised texts.