The Emigrant as Witness: WG Sebald`s "Die

The Emigrant as Witness: W.G. Sebald's "Die Ausgewanderten"
Author(s): Katja Garloff
Source: The German Quarterly, Vol. 77, No. 1 (Winter, 2004), pp. 76-93
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Association of Teachers of German
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3252150
Accessed: 19-03-2015 18:31 UTC
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
Wiley and American Association of Teachers of German are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access
to The German Quarterly.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
KATJAGARLOFF
ReedCollege
The Emigrant as Witness:
W.G. Sebald's Die Ausgewanderten
WG.Sebald'stextscombinewordsandimages,factandfiction,documentary
narrationin waysthathaveledcriticsto proclaimthema
gestureandfirst-person
new literarygenrethatis well suitedto the representation
of historicalviolence.1
DieAusgewanderten
hasbeenhailedas a bookthatbalancesthe claimsof memory
with the injunctionagainstHolocaustrepresentation,
and the desireto understandthe victimswith the necessityto avoida facileidentificationwith them.
ErnestineSchlantpraisesDieAusgewanderten
thesilenceof avoidfortransforming
ancecharacteristic
of somuchpostwarGermanliterature
intoa silenceof tormented victims.Ann Parryarguesthat the book managesto "breakthroughthe
of the Shoahandprovidea continuingtestimonyto its unsayunrepresentability
And
in the text
ability"(427).
finally,StefanieHarrisshowsthatthe photographs
in
a
of
their
that
(RolandBarthes) singularity experience resists
punctum
preserve
Inthisessay,I developthesereadingsfurtherby analyzinga literary
verbalization.
to history
motifthatbothembodiesandstructuresSebald'scircumspect
approach
I exploretheanalogiesbetweenSebald's
andmemory:emigration.
Moreprecisely,
of GermanJewishemigrantsandtheuseof theemigrant
literarycommemoration
traumatheory,especiallyin the
as a privileged
figureof witnessin contemporary
workof the ItalianphilosopherGiorgioAgamben.
Thesignificance
of spatialmovementin Sebaldhasnotgoneunnoticed.Susan
writes
that
of onekindoranotherareat the heartof allSebald's
"journeys
Sontag
narratives:
the narrator'sown peregrinations,
andthe lives,allin someway disThis
observation
aboutthe omnipresence
that
the
narrator
evokes"
(43).
placed,
andmultivalenceof displacement
holdstrueforallof Sebald'sliteraryworks,but
is particularly
salientin DieAusgewanderten.
Indeed,the bookbeginswith the dea
remains
of
whose
exact
purpose
vague,despitetheprecisemarkpiction journey
"EndeSeptember1970,kurz
ersof time,place,andmotivationin thedescription:
StadtNorwich,fuhrichmit Clara
vorAntrittmeinerStellungin derostenglischen
nachHinghamhinaus"(7).Herethenarrator
mentionsfacts
aufWohnungssuche
abouthislifeandhiscurrenttripasif theywerewellknownto hisreaders,
yet they
arenot:what kindof jobis he aboutto begin,why in thiscity,andwho is Clara?
Thereaderisneverprovidedtheanswersand,in fact,doesnot needto knowthem
becausethey turnout to be irrelevantto the restof the story.Bybeginningwith
TheGermanQuarterly77.1 (Winter2004)
76
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Sebald
GARLOFF:
77
the bookestablishesdisplacement
as boththe subthisvaguesceneof departure,
The
effects
of
this
can
the
condition
of
and
strategy
perhapsbe best
ject
writing.
the richestandmostcomplexstoryofDieAusgewanderten,
seenin "MaxAurach,"
which reconstructsthe life of a Jewishpainterwho emigrated,still a teenager,
fromGermanyto Englandin 1939.AsIwillargue,thetextcanbereadasa seriesof
impossiblereturnsand missedencounters.First,Aurachis unableto readthe
GermanJewsat the
memoirin whichhismotherrecollectsthe lifeof assimilated
turnof the century.Then,the narrator's
visitto Germanyfailsto providethedeof thelifeofAurach's
siredconfirmation
family.Finally,thenarrator's
storynever
reachesthe personwhom it was meantto reach,MaxAurach.Yetif the speakers
withinthe textcanneverquiteconnectwith eachother,
andaddressees
described
their"missedencounters"
establishthe possibilityof literarytestimony.Likecontemporarytheoristsof trauma,Sebaldsuggeststhat the possibilityof textual
transmissionemergesfromthe impossibilityof knowledgeanddialogue.
Theinterestin testimonyasa literarygenrein recentyearshasalteredthe debateaboutthe "unsayability"
or the "unrepresentability"
of the Holocaust.Originallyconcernedwith the questionof how humanlanguagecouldeverfurnish
wordsforthisuniqueact of massdestruction,the debatehas shiftedtowardthe
functionof
insightthat the Holocausthasdisruptednot so muchthe referential
but
its
address.
to
As
Shoshana
Felman
and
Laub
Dori
ability
language
putit, the
Holocaustis an "eventwithout a witness"(75-92)not only becausethe Nazis
killedor silencedmost physicalwitnessesof the Holocaust,but alsobecausethe
administered
bureaucratically
genocidedestroyedthe ethicaldimensionof lanits
to
bonds
betweenhumanbeings.2Holocausttestimony,
guage, capacity forge
both
this
crisis
of
then,
expresses
languageandrestoressomeof thelostcapacityby
a
communal
and
communicative
openingup
spaceinwhichthetruthcanemerge.
Thewitnessto traumadoesnot possessthe truthbutis ratherpartof anongoing
questforthetruth,a questthatinvolvesanaudienceableandwillingto endurethe
silencesthat accompanyall Holocausttestimony.3
In herinterpretation
of ClaudeLanzmann's
filmShoah,Felmanfocuseson a
thefilm'sattemptto bearwitness:the surfigurethatbothframesandcrystallizes
vivorwhosereturnto the siteof traumainitiatesa processof working-through.
Shoahbeginswith anaccountof how Lanzmannwent to IsraelandfoundSimon
Srebnik,one of only two survivorsof the Chelmnodeathcamp,andconvinced
himto returnto Chelmnoin orderto describewhat happenedthere.Thisreturn,
Felmanargues,restoresa senseof agencyto Srebnikandenableshimto see"what
remained
dueto theinherentlyblindingnatureof theoccurrence"
unseen
originally
tooyoungandtoonumbedto bearwitness,
(255,emphasisbyFelman).Originally
Srebnikis only ableto describethe eventshe had seenin Chelmnomuchlater,
when he revisitsthe formerdeathcampwith the innerdistancegrantedby his
andthe
postwarlife in Israel.Residencein Israel,"theplaceof the regeneration
locusof thegatheringof Holocaustsurvivors"
(256),hasprovidedhimwith analternative"frameof reference"
thatrelativizesthe frameof deathanddestruction
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE GERMANQUARTERLY
78
Winter2004
governingthe campsandthus enableshim to become"anarticulateandforthe
witnessof what he hadbeenwitnessingduringthe war"
firsttimefullyconscious
(258).Felmanplacesparticular
cognitive
emphasison the expansionof Srebnik's
horizonandhis developmentof a doubleperspectiveafterhis moveto Israel.In
thus invokingthe emigrant'sepistemological
advantage,she mobilizesa hermeneuticof exileto arguefor the possibilityof testimony.4
a meditationon the writingsof PrimoLevi,
Inhis bookRemnants
ofAuschwitz,
describes
testimonyasa formof speechthatis marked
GiorgioAgambensimilarly
Intestimony,the speechof the surand
a
constitutive
lacunae
incompleteness.
by
whichwas the campjargon
vivoris conjoinedwith the silenceof theMuselmann,
forthosewho hadgrownsoweakin bodyandspiritthattheyseemeddoomedto
is an importantfigurein allof PrimoLevi'swritings.)
selection.(TheMuselmann
who can
an
on
dialoguebetweenthe survivor,
asymmetrical
Testimonydepends
who
and
the
the
Muselmann, hasthe
speakbut hasnot fullyexperienced camps,
experiencebut canno longerspeak.The cruxof Agamben'sargumentis that the
witnessdoesnot primarily
testifyto the historicalfacts,suchas the existenceof
the camps,but ratherto someonewho canno longerspeakorto somethingthat
canno longerbe spoken.LikeFelmanandLaub,who readtestimonyas a product
of humaninteraction-the attentivenessextendedby the empatheticlistenerto
thetraumatized
survivor-Agambenneverdetachestestimonyfromtheconcrete
of
agencies speech.In the act of testimonytwo differentkindsof impossibilities,
the impossibilityof experienceandthe impossibilityof speech,collidein a way
into instancesof a processof
that splitsthe monolithicideaof "unspeakability"
The languageof testimonydoesnot simplyfalterandstammerin
transmission.
butratherexpressesthe silenceof anotherhumanbethe faceof the unspeakable,
betweenthe speakerandthe mute.5Agamben
a
thus
founding relationship
ing,
of Levi'srelationshipto Hurbinek.Hurin
idea
his
this
interpretation
explicates
a littleboy at Auschwitzwho never
was
called
him,
binek,as the otherprisoners
of a singlewordthatsoundedlike
variations
learnedto speakbutonedayuttered
Leviremarksthat,thoughtheboy'slanguageremaineda
or"matisklo."
"massklo"
non-languageunderstoodby no one, "hebearswitness throughthesewordsof
mine"(38).Agambenelaborates:
thatnolongersignifiesandthat,in not
of testimonyis a language
Thelanguage
to the pointof takingon a
without
what
is
into
advances
language,
signifying,
of thecompletewitness,thatofhewhobydefinidifferent
insignificance-that
notenoughto bringlantioncannotbearwitness.Tobearwitness,it is therefore
of letters(m-a-s-s-k-I-o,
to
the
own
to
its
non-sense,
pureundecidability
guage
m-a-t-i-s-k-I-o).It is necessarythat this senselesssoundbe, in turn, the voice of
somethingor someonethat, forentirelyotherreasons,cannotbearwitness. It is
thus necessarythat the impossibilityof bearingwitness, the "lacuna"that constitutes human language,collapses,giving way to a differentimpossibilityof
bearing witness-that
which does not have language. (39)
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
GARLOFF:
Sebald
79
Thoughfiguresof displacementareless prominentin Agamben'swork,one
appearsat the crucialjuncturewhen he developshis idea of the "remnant."
Agambencitesa remarkby a famousGermanJewishemigrant,the philosopher
is "themothertongue"
HannahArendt,who in 1961statedthat "whatremains"
a
new
forms
this
lead
from
his
remark,
(159).Taking
conceptionof how
Agamben
the speakingtestifyto the speechlessby reenactingthe lossof language:"tobear
witnessis to placeoneselfinone'sown languagein thepositionof thosewho have
lost it, to establishoneselfin a livinglanguageas if it weredead,orin a deadlanguageas if it wereliving-in anycase,outsideboththe archiveandthecorpusof
choiceof theformerrefugeeArendt
what hasalreadybeensaid"(161).Agamben's
Therefugeewho is alivebecausesheescapedthecampsis a parais nocoincidence.
ableto bearwitnesspreciselybecauseshehasnot, asAgamben
digmaticsurvivor,
bottom'in thecamp"(54).Exileis a paradigmatic
citesPrimoLevi,"'touched
preis a formof
dicamentthatforcesone'sown languageto bereborn.Exileliterature
writingthat arisesneitherfromthe corpusof what has beensaidnorfromthe
writer'ssubjectivity.
Fortheexilewriter'swordsaredislodgedfromwhatis being
afterthelossof allexistential
saidat homeandherselfhasfirstto bereconstituted
Of course,thisideaof theconstitutivenewnessof exiliclanguagedoes
certainties.
not necessarilyholdtruein reality-indeed,exileliteratureis just as likelyto be
conventionalas otherliterature-butit is significantthatAgambeninvokeshere
to figurethepossibilityof testimony.Suggesting
that
theexperience
of emigration
shewho speaksin a mothertongueexperienced
asdeadperformsthe samecrosstestimony,Agamingof the boundarybetweenlifeanddeaththatcharacterizes
benprojectsa paradoxical
of time-which healsocomparesto themesexperience
future-onto
sianichoveringbetweenan incompletepastandan indeterminate
the spatialmovementof emigration.
Thisbriefglimpseintotheworkof theoristsof testimonyshowsthattheiruse
of figuresofdisplacement
isneitherarbitrary
normerelyillustrative.
Rather,it capturestheirsharedideathat in testimonythe possibilityof transmission
emerges
fromthe impossibilityof speech.It is preciselybecausean experiencecannotbe
in searchof new addressees.6
fullyverbalizedthatit demandsto be rearticulated
while
Felman
and
Laub
locate
the
However,
experienceof the Holocaustin the
of
the
which
can
be graduallyarticulatedwithin a
structure
witness,
psychical
of
and
firstwitnesses,Agambenpositsa moreradical
community
second-degree
between
and
to FelmanandLaub,the
disjunction
language experience.
According
returnto a siteof traumais animportantstepin thesurvivor's
of linrecuperation
and
establishment
of
new
the
the
idioms
to
talk
about
Holocaust.7
guisticagency
Agamben'sfocuson a differentimpedimentto speech,the incomprehensibility
andirretrievability
of theMuselmann's
words,is reflectedinhisdifferentuseof the
of
the
Whereas
for
Felman
andLaubemigrationandreturnmake
figure
emigrant.
upthespiralmovementthatisworking-through,
Agambencitesemigrationasan
instanceof departure
withoutarrivalandwithoutreturn.Likewise,testimony,if
it is at allpossible,is a departure
to new expressive
ratherthana recovpossibilities
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
80
THEGERMAN
QUARTERLY
Winter2004
eryof lostspeechormemories.InwhatfollowsIarguethatthisidea,moreso than
the modelproposedby FelmanandLaub,shedsnew lighton the disjunctionbetween placeandmemoryin Sebald's"MaxAurach."8
"MaxAurach"beginsby dismantlingthe ideathat the departurefromhome
ushersin a new lifeoropensupa new perspective
onlife.Wedonot knowwhatin
1966motivatedthe narratorto leavehis home,whichremainshereas elsewhere
unnamed,butwe learnrightawaythat his confidencein the futurewas "falsch"
(220).Ifhisglimpseof thelightsof Londonfromtheairplanestillpromisesthebewhichoffersnothing
ginningof a new lifein anewworld,thesightof Manchester,
but "einschwaches,wie vonAschenahezuschonersticktesGlosen"(221),reveals
the truecharacter
of hisdestination:Manchester,
the formercapitalof industrialis
a
a
filledwith ashes,a largecemenow
deserted
of
burnt
site
ization,
city ruins,
haunted
the
In
tery
by restlessdead.9 the weeksafterhis arrival,the narratorsuffersfroma "Ziel-und Zwecklosigkeit"
(230)that furthercallsinto questionthe
ideaof emigrationastheroadto freedomandhappiness.Hemightevenhavecommittedsuicidehadnot a curiousobject,theteas-maid,
kepthimaliveby anchoring
himin childhoodmemories(227f.).On Sundays,drivenby thedesireto findsome
kindof direction,he roamsthroughthe city.Oneday,he passesby the city'sformerJewishquarter;on anotherday,he arrivesat the desolatedockareain which
MaxAurach's
atelierislocated,andtheirdialoguebegins.Inthecourseof thebook,
thisencounterwithAurachrevealsthatthenarrator's
feelingsof desolationresult
less fromexistentiallonelinessthan froma historicaltraumathat has not been
workedthrough.Ultimately,his emigrationto Englandleadshim to a placein
which the pastcomesto haunthim.
The text as a whole reconstructsa life scarredby a traumaticlossthat at the
sametimefoundsthe possibilityof survival:althoughAurachlosthis parentsand
to England,thislossis alsothereamuchof hisnativelanguageafterhisdeparture
at
son forhis survivalandhis abilityto speak all.10The narrator-andsincethe
novelis structuredaroundthegradualacquisitionof knowledge,thereadertooof theunconscious,
getsa firstsenseof Aurach'sproblemthroughmanifestations
strongemotionssuch
includingdreams,phobias,memorylapses,andinexplicably
ashisangerthathe couldnot bedraftedinWorldWarII(249).In 1989,afterhehas
almostcompletelyforgottenAurach,the narratorfirstseesa paintingby Aurach
andthenreadsa newspaperarticleabouthimthatmentionsthe deportationand
eventualmurderof hisparentsin Riga.He seeksoutAurachandlearnsthatheleft
Germanyin 1939andhas not spokenany Germansince,sufferinga "Verschilt(271)thatmightexplainhispartialamnesia.BoththeinaccessitungderSprache"
Aurach's
memories
andthe belatednesswith whichhe realizedhis parof
bility
his conditionas traumatic.
ents'deathcharacterize
earlier
Aurach's
Thenarrator's
own emigrationto Englanduncannilyparallels
in
Aurach
arrived
the
details:
when
first
down
to
visual
emigration,
Manchester,
he also perceivedthe city from a bird'sperspective,and the city lookedas iflit up by
a fire.The many chimneys "ausdenen ein gelbgrauerRauch drang"(251), which
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
GARLOFF:
Sebald
81
madethe most lastingimpressionon Aurach,recallthe ashesenvisionedby the
and industrial
narratorand conjureup a causallink betweenindustrialization
fire
the
that
of
was
caused
The
fact
Aurach's
by sunsetand
impression
genocide.11
viewof theashenlandscape
underscores
thetemporal
thenarrator's
bymoonlight
which
the
between
the
two
scenes
of
visualize
simultaneous
distance
arrival,
lag
Aurachhadbelievedthat
andconnectionbetweenthetwo men.Likethenarrator,
he wouldbeginin the immigrantcityof Manchester"einneues,voraussetzungslosesLeben"(286)butinsteadbecamehauntedby the phantomsof the past.The
a returnto the GermanJewishpastandanunarrivalin Manchester
inaugurated
fixation
on
the
Holocaust.
"Genau
spoken
vermagich es nichtmehranzugeben,
welche
Gedanken
der
Anblick
von Manchesterdamalsin miraussagteAurach,
ich
ich
aber
das
16ste,
glaube,dalB
Gefiihlhatte,angelangtzu seinam Ortmeiner
When
Aurach
describesthisarrivalto the narratorfora sec(251).
Bestimmung"
a
ond time,he gives cynicalandgruesometwist to a traditionaleuphemismfor
which duringthe nineteenthcenturywas infaindustriallaborin Manchester,
mouslypollutedby coalsmoke:
Gr6fSer
alsin jederanderen
Stadtist dasganzeletzteJahrhundert
europdischen
in Manchester
hindurch
derdeutscheundderjildische
EinflufS
gewesen,undso
binich,obwohlichmichindieentgegengesetzte
aufdenWeggemacht
Richtung
zu Hauseangelangt,
hatte,beimeinerAnkunftin Manchester
gewissermaSlen
undmit jedemJahr,dasich seitherzugebracht
habezwischendenschwarzen
Fassaden
dieserGeburtsstdtte
unsererIndustrie,
ist es mirdeutlicher
geworden
thatI amhere,as theyusedto say,to serveunderthechimney.(287)
The changeof languagein the text reflectsthe difficultyof translatinginto
Germananexpressionthat,asAurachindicates,is a commonEnglishphrasewith
its own particular
"toserveunderthechimney."
Thepassagealsoreassociations,
mindsus of the factthatAurachandthe narratorspokeEnglishwith eachother,
thusemphasizing
Aurach'sexilicexistenceandlossof hisnativetongue.12
At the
sametime,theimageof thechimneycannotbutacquirea loadeddoublemeaning
asit becomesincreasingly
clearthatAurachis hauntedby traumaticmemoriesof
his parentsand theirmurderin the Holocaust.The phrase"toserveunderthe
chimney"pointsto the deepertruthof Aurach'slife:thatin goingto Englandhe
unknowinglydevotedhimselfto the memoryof the Holocaust.Thiscorrespondencebetweenhomeandexile,whichis highlightedby the text'sswitchinginto
Aurach'sunbreakable
ties to his former
Englishat the verymomentit describes
home,recallsLaub'sobservationthat "silenceis [forsurvivorsof trauma]a fated
exile,yet alsoa home,a destination,anda bindingoath.Tonotreturnfromthis
silenceis ruleratherthanexception"(Testimony
58).
Thedayafterhe hastoldthestoryof hisemigration,
Aurachgivesthenarrator
a manuscriptof aboutone hundredpageswrittenby his motherduringthe late
1930s,when the situationin Germanywas growingincreasinglyhopelessand the
parents'emigrationincreasinglyunlikely The writings contain few allusions to
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
82
THEGERMAN
QUARTERLY
Winter2004
thesecircumstances
butratherdepictthemother'schildhoodandyouthin Southern Germanvillages;it is as sucha documentof the historical"German-Jewish
Thepapersimmersethereaderin theminutedetailsandmundaneritsymbiosis."
ualsof dailylife,conjuringup a denseatmosphereanda richculturalexperience.
Althoughthe narratorannouncesinitiallythathe onlyexcerptsthe papers(289),
the first-person-narration
andthe lackof linguisticshifterstendto makeus forget
his interventionsandreadthesepagesas the mother'sunmediatednarration.13
Thereis littleif anytensionbetweenthe parents'Jewishoriginsandtheirbelonging to the Germanmiddleclass.TheycherishlocalholidaysandJewishholidays
of
alike,donningtheirbestbourgeoiscostumesforthelatter(300).Thedescription
the Jewishschoolthe motherattended-"nichtdas,was manuntereinerJudenschuleversteht"(303),with a teacherwho seeshimself"inersterLinieals treuer
Dienerdes Staates"(304)-reflectsthe mother'sbeliefin the cultureof assimilation.Thecatastrophes
areof a privatekind,likethe deathsfirstof herfianceand
then of anotheracquaintance
with whom shewas aboutto fallin love.It is preciselythe possibilityof privatetragedythatmarksherlifeasnormalandthatpresents the integrationof Jewsinto Germansocietyas a genuinepossibility.
WelearnthatAurachreadthepaperstwice,oncesuperficially
andonceclosely,
them
at
in
that
his
mother
had
written
least
for
him.
The second
assuming
part
time,the documentstruckhim
indenenman,einmalindenBanngewieeinesjenerbbsendeutschen
Mdrchen,
in
mit
einer
Arbeit, diesemFallalsomitdemErinnern,
schlagen,
angefangenen
demSchreiben
unddemLesen,fortfahren
biseinemdasHerzbricht.(289)
mufS,
This is a curiousformulation,which allows for the possibilitythat the fairytales do not so much narratebut requirean effort that breaksthe heart.Indeed, it seems that the mother's text placedsuch strong demandson the
readerthat Aurachhad to evadethem altogetherand passedthem on to anotherperson.Whateverthe mother'smessagewas, it didnot fullyreachits intendedreader-since it mighthavedestroyedhim-yet it is preciselybecause
the hermeneuticcircleis not closedthat a processof transmissionsets in. This
is the firstinstancein "MaxAurach"in which the disruptionof a "communicativecircuit"in testimonyleadsto the establishmentof new chainsof transmission and, ultimately,guaranteesthat the story is passedon.14
The mother'smemoir,in whichsherevisitsthe experienceof GermanJewry
beforethe riseof Nazism,entailsanotherkindof return.Evidentlyin an attempt
to learnmoreaboutAurach'sfamily,the narratorembarkson a journeyto Kissingen,the SouthernGermantown inwhichtheyhadlived.Thevisitturnsoutto
be a failure.The narratorreturnsearlierthan plannedin partbecausehe has
learnedmuchaboutthe generalhistoryof the Jewsin thisregionbutlittleabout
Thenarrator
is appalledby the forgetthe particular
historyof Aurach'sfamily.15
is that "dierings
fulnessof the Germans-the mainreasonforhis earlydeparture
derDeutschen,das
undErinnerungslosigkeit
michumgebendeGeistesverarmung
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
GARLOFF:
Sebald
83
Geschick,mit dem man allesbereinigthatte,mirKopfund Nervenanzugreifen
begann"(338)- yet his own visitto the Jewishcemeterycannotreversethe processof forgetting.Thisis so in partbecausethe cemeteryhasbecomedefunctasa
visibleon the photograph
of
publicsiteof mourning.Despitethe announcement
wirddemSchutzderAllgemeinheit
its entrancesign-"DieserFriedhof
empfohlen"(333)-it isclearthatthecemeteryisutterlyneglectedanddevoidof function.
Andalthoughthenarrator
findsthegravestone
ofAurach's
parentsandperformsa
traditionalgestureof mourningby puttinga stoneon it, he leavesthe cemetery
with a feelingof inneremptiness.
The imageof the defunctJewishcemeteryacquiresa particular
resonancein
thecontextof the "missing
the
i.e., destructionof memoryitself
gravesyndrome,"
in industrialgenocide.Becausethe Holocaustannihilatedeventhe tracesof the
of
dead,it callsfornew andspecialsitesof memoryto enablea commemoration
thedead.Yetthecemeteryvisitedbythenarrator
onlycompoundsthedifficultyof
commemoration.
Thesecondlineon its entrysignhintsatyet anotherpublicsignificanceof Jewishcemeteries.It reads:"Beschidigungen,
undjegZerstarungen
licherbeschimpfende
werden
strafrechtlich
As
(333).
Unfug
verfolgt"
background
forthiswarningservesthe factthat the desecration
of Jewishcemeterieswasandstillis-one of the mostconspicuousandfrequentexpressions
of anti-Semiin
tismin postwarGermany,
the
absence
of
a
and
visible
where,
Jewishpopularge
havebecomethe substituteobjectsof anti-Semitic
attacks.As
lation,gravestones
SanderGilmanhasargued,thefactthatanti-Jewish
hostilitiesareoftendirectedat
placesratherthanpeoplealsoreflectsthe construction,in postwarGermany,of
in conJewishpresenceas a thingof the past.Indeed,thereis a starkdiscrepancy
between
the
of
temporaryGermany
symbolicsignificance thingsJewishand
The Jewishcemeteryin
the-apparent, imagined-absenceof Jewishpeople.16
"MaxAurach,"
a forgottensiteof memorythatis stillmarkedasa possibletargetof
anti-Semitism,
highlightsthisdualattack,thedestructionof a siteofmemoryand
the denialof Jewishlife that is expressedin the verychoiceof the target.
Thephotographs
includedin thissectionfurtherenhancetheimpressionthat
the narrator's
visitutterlyfails.InherrecentarticleonDieAusgewanderten,
StefanieHarrishasmadea compellingargumentaboutthefunctionof photographs
in
Sebald'stext.Whilewarningagainsttheassumptionthatphotographs
areanunmediateddocumentationof reality,Harrisemphasizesthe complementary
relabetween
words
and
Because
assert
the
tionship
photographs.
theyirrefutably
past
in thetextlendauthenticityto the wordsdepresenceof things,the photographs
includedin the cemetery
scribingthe things.I wouldaddthat the photographs
further
the
between
the
visualand the verbal.
passage
complicate relationship
Thesephotographs
aretheonlyonesin thisstorythatcontainwords,includingan
entrancesign,keylabels,andepitaphs,allof whichpresumably
nameandverify
theobjectsinview.17However,whilethephotographed
wordspotentiallyanchor
thephotographs
inrealityandascribea functionto theobjects,themaintexthighlightsthe disjunctionbetweenthingsandwords.As previouslymentioned,the
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
84
THEGERMAN
QUARTERLY
Winter2004
actualconditionof thecemeteryrepudiates
theideaexpressed
intheentrancesign,
thatthe cemeteryis a publicsiteof memory.Thenarrator
noticesthe discrepancy
betweennameandreality:"DerAnblick,dersichmirvon dortausbot, stimmte
nichtzu denmit demWortFriedhofverbundenen
(334).Thekeys
Vorstellungen"
that arelabeled"Israel.
Friedhof"
and"Israel
tischerFriedhof"[sic],furthermore,
donot fitintothekeyholesof thecemetery.
Andwhenthenarrator
thinksthatthe
nameson the gravestones,includingHamburger,
Baumblatt
andBluKissinger,
their
the
in
evince
a
connection
between
bearers
and
land
which
menthal,
deep
he
also
have
the
surmises
that
non-Jewsmight
they lived,
begrudged Jewsthis
senseof connection.Thosenamesthatseemto signifyconnectedness,
hesuggests,
inrealitycementedseparateness
the
ofJewsinto
further
byhampering
integration
Germansociety.A finaldisjunctionbetweensignsandrealitycanbe foundin the
gravestoneforAurach'sparents.Forthisgravestonewhichwas probablyerected
uncleLeo(337)afterthe parentshadperishedin thecamps,is indeeda
byAurach's
cenotaphthatindicatesanemptytomb.Thecenotaphinvertsthefunctionof the
epitaphproperby signalingthe absenceratherthanpresenceof the deadbody.
Insteadofverifyingexistence,thephotographic
inclusionofwordsdramatizes
the inabilityof objectsto liveup to theirascribedmeaning.Althoughthe photographsmaystillproducea realityeffectby verifyingthe existenceof things,they
donot makehistoryanymoretangible.Thesameis trueforthenarrator's
journey
the physicalreturnto the sitesof historyis
to Germany.Likethe photographs,
meantto lendtangibilityto thewordsofAurach'smotherandfurnishevidenceof
the journeyfailsto producethis
theirnon-fictitiousness,
yet likethe photographs,
effect.
If the inscriptionsfailto functionas nameandverification,
theynevertheless
who receivesan "Erkennungschreck"
havean emotionalimpacton the narrator,
(335)whenherecognizeshisown birthdateon onegravestoneandthesymbolofa
identifiquillon anotherone.WhilecomposingAurach'slifestory,the narrator's
cationwith a deadwomanwhom he imaginesto havebeena writerturnsintoan
act of mourning:
alleinundatemlosiiberihreArbeitgeIchdachtesie mirals Schriftstellerin,
kommtesmirvor,alshdtteichsieverloren
beugt,undjetzt,wo ichdiesschreibe,
trotzderlangen,seitihremAbleben
undalsk6nneich sie nichtverschmerzen
Zeit.(336f.,emphasisby Sebald)
verflossenen
This sceneof the writerconjuringup the imageof an alteregowith whom he
canempathizeshows how muchmourninghasbecomea purelyprivateact of
commemoration,one that hingesuponchancemomentsof recognition."Recognition"shouldhere be distinguishedfrom "knowledge,"in the sense that
knowingmeansto bestow a mentalrepresentationon somethingandmakeit
commensuratewith otherthings,whereasrecognizingmeansto sensea presence without subsumingit to existingrepresentationalforms.18Becausethe
narratorregistersan affectiveimpactratherthan knows a historicalfact, he
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
GARLOFF:
Sebald
85
findspersonalaccessto a historythat hasbeensilencedin public.This senseof
individualizationalsotranspiresin the ratherodddirectionsgivento the narratorwhen he first asks for the way to the Jewishcemetery:
Friedhof
ausingerader
zumisraelitischen
gelangeman,indemmanvomRathaus
LinietausendSchrittesidwdrtsbisandasEndederBergmannstrafe
gehe(333).
Thesedirectionsevokethe ideaof a secretplace,likein the children'sgameof
the treasurehunt. In the absenceof externaltopographicalmarkerslikestreet
signs, place directionsattach themselvesto the body of the individual.In
Michelde Certeau'sterms,"place"is beingtransformedinto "space"as the individualinhabitsandappropriates
a certainareathroughhis orherown bodily
movements(117).The narratorexperiencesthis transformationin a residual
fashionwhen he walksthroughthe forgottencemetery,which hasbeenemptied of its publicmeaningbut still harborsthe possibilityof privatesignificance.
EvaJuhlhaspointedout a certaindilemmain Sebald:on theonehand,heconsciouslychoosesan individual,
biographical
approachto the historyof the Holocaust to counteractthe widely spreadtendencyto treatthe topic "ingrosfen
(Sebald,quotedinJuhl644).Ontheotherhand,herejectsempathyas
Kategorien"
a modeof rapprochement
betweenthevictimsof historyandthosenotdirectlyaffectedby it. Writing,then,emergesas a way of circumventing
boththe failureof
at
identification
some
moments
and
the
successof this
empathic
inappropriate
mode of contactat othermoments.In "PaulBereyter,"
a storyabouta former
schoolteacher
who had beenbannedfrompracticinghis professionduringthe
ThirdReichbecausehe was partJewish,the narratorwrites:
Darumhabeich-sehr verspdtet-versucht
michihmanzundhern,
habevermir
wie
er
in
hat
der
im
sucht, auszumalen,
gelebt
groSenWohnung oberen
StockdesaltenLerchenmiillerhauses
... SolcheVersuche
derVergegenwdrtigung
brachtenmichjedoch,wie ichmireingestehen
mufte, demPaulnichtndher,
ingewissenAusuferungen
desGefiihls,
wiesiemir
h6chstensaugenblicksweise,
undzu derenVermeidung
erscheinen
ichjetztaufgeschrieben
unzuldssig
habe,
wasichvonPaulBereyter
weiSundimVerlauf
meinerErkundungen
fiberihnin
Erfahrung
bringenkonnte.(44f.)
The relationship
betweenAurachandthe narratorin the laststoryhas to be
seenin the lightof thisdilemmabetweenthe simultaneousneedforandinjunction againstan imaginativeidentification
with the victimsof history.One solutionto thisis theconstructionof a narrator
who followsinAurach'stracksandretrievesthe traceshe left on his way.This constructionis aidedby the curiously
of thenarrator
andtheabsenceof a clearmotivationforhis
vaguecharacterization
actions.A first-person
narrative
thatwouldbeexpectedto foreground
anindividual'sexperience
andpointof view,the textgivesus almostno informationabout
the narrator's
orhis activitiesin England.
person,the motivesforhis emigration,
He "purported"
to go to Manchesterto do research(221)andoncementionsthe
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
86
THEGERMAN
QUARTERLY
Winter2004
completionof his research,stilldescribingit in the vaguesttermspossible(263).
nationBasedon thelaststoryalone,we cannotevenbesureaboutthenarrator's
19
A
...
sei
ich
also
so weit
Aurach
that
"Rein
zeitlich
remark
jetzt
gesehen
by
ality.
schonvonDeutschlandentfernt,wie eresimJahr1966gewesenwar"(270)is perandthe narrais originallyfromGermany,
hapsthe clearesthintthatthe narrator
to queryAurach
abouthisoriginsmightbetakento indicate
tor'sinitialreluctance
his own emotionalinvestmentin these origins.However,when the narrator
speaksabouttheGermansasa collective(338)hedoesnot seemto includehimself
in this group,andthe factthat he has no problemsgettinga teachingjobin the
Swissschoolsystemeven suggeststhat he mightbe of Swissnationality.
not so muchasAucaststhe narrator
Thedeliberately
vaguecharacterization
rach'salteregobut as someonewho followshis subjectwith sometemporaldiswho asfaraswe knowisnota Hotanceandalwaysjustmisseshim.Thenarrator,
thetraumaof the
neitherpurportsto beavictimnorappropriates
locaustsurvivor,
other,buthisreenactmentof Aurach'smovesrendershimcapableof reconstructing the painter'spast.In goingto Manchester,the narratorreiteratesAurach's
own emigrationwith a distincttemporallag.The sameis trueforhis temporary
move to Switzerland,aboutwhich the readerlearnsimmediatelyafterreading
of foraboutAurach'sown recentjourneyto Switzerlandandthe partialretrieval
that
it
is
no
coincidence
memories
it
entailed.
Quite
childhood
possibly,
gotten
of AuSwitzerlandis an importantstationon the way to a fullerreconstruction
neutralcountryprorach'spast:thelinguistically
German,yet politically
(partially)
of the victimsandthe perpetrators.
videsa commongroundforthe descendants
accordedthe dialoguebetweenAurachandthe narraDespitethe significance
In fact, one
remains
their
disjointedand non-contemporaneous.
tor,
exchange
the
between
encounter"
a
"missed
around
is
structured
the
text
that
may say
in
their
never
coincide
and
answers
two.20Questions
dialogue.
asymmetrical
quite
It is unclearwhat exactlyimpedestheirdialogue,whetherAurach'sreluctanceto
reluctanceto asktheright
answerthe narrator's
questions(247)orthe narrator's
the narratorasksthe
questions(266).In anycase,thereis a senseof belatedness:
questionsbelatedlyandhe findsthe answersbelatedly.The narratorintendedto
lifestoryto the paintersoonafterits completion,buthe is unableto
sendAurach's
doso,at firstbecausethecompletionis delayedbyhisobsessiverewritingandperwith the "mil~ratenes
sistentdissatisfaction
Stiickwerk"
(345),laterbecausethe
we
donot knowthisfor
in
the
be
dead
He
ill.
has
fallen
end,
though
might
painter
sure.The lasttimewe readaboutAurach,he is in the hospitalandcanno longer
of the soundof his speechto "dasGeraschel
speakclearly.Indeed,the comparison
vertrockneter
Blhtterim Wind"(345f.)associateshiswordswith archaic,perhaps
thetemporallagbetweenthelifeof theseleavesand
illegible,writing,emphasizing
the momentof theirperception.However,this missedencounterbetweenthe
of hiswritinggenwriterandthepersonwho is boththesubjectandtheaddressee
eratesa new formof literarytestimony.Forhad the 'verkfrzteVersionseines
Lebens"(345)reachedAurach,it mighthavecuredhis amnesiaandclosedthe cir-
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
GARLOFF:
Sebald
87
cuitthatwasopenedwhenhehandedhismother'spapersto thenarrator.21
Justas
Aurach'sevasionof thesepapersenablestheirfurthertransmission,the suspensionofclosurewidensthecircleof addressees
becauseit givesanimpetusto literary
I
do
to
that
this
not
mean
is
indeed
the genesisof the actualstory
writing.
argue
"MaxAurach,"
butratherthatthisis how thetextconstruesits own possibility:
it
did
fulfill
exist
because
the
not
its
might
precisely
testimony
therapeuticpurpose
andimpartto Auracha senseof his past.22
Thisdialecticbetweenthepossibilityandimpossibility
of testimonyis particsince
both
are
Aurach
and
the
narrator
ularlysignificant
figuresof collectivememIn
the
memoir
for
Aurach's
mother
him,
ory. writing
attemptsto makehersona
witnessto thehistorical"German-Jewish
symbiosis"-althoughin the contextof
the storyasa whole,the memoircannotbuthighlightthe fragilityof the integrationofJewsintoGermansociety.Andit isinNovember1989thatthenarrator
sees
the paintingandreadsthe newspaperarticlethat inducehim to returnto ManchesterandaskAurachthe questionshe thus faravoided.Thismomentof reencounterisconstruedascontingent-the narrator
stumbledoverAurach'spainting
andthe newspaperarticleby chance-yet it inevitablyreferences
the crucialmomentin Germanhistorywhen the fallof the BerlinWallendedthe postwardivisionof Germanyin two states.Here,thismomentcreatesnew divisions,ormore
a new attentionto the particular
precisely,
historyof GermanJewishemigrants
that was previouslyobscured.
At thebeginningof thisessay,I notedthe parallelism
betweenthecommemorationof GermanJewishemigrantsin WG.Sebald'sworkandthe invocationof
the emigrantas a privileged
figureof witnessin recenttraumatheory.Bothposit
thatratherthanmoreexactingwords,we neednew communalandcommunicative relationsto get beyondthe impassesof Holocaustrepresentation.
The fact
that in DieAusgewanderten
relations
often
take
the
form
of
missed
interpersonal
encountersandthatfiguresof departure
prevailoverfiguresof returnputsSebald
ingreaterproximityto GiorgioAgambenthanto ShoshanaFelmanandDoriLaub.
Sebald'sliterarytextsaremoreattunedto the philosopher's
ideaof impossiblereturnandirretrievable
notionof emigration
and
speechthanto thepsychoanalyst's
returnas a formof working-through.
In "MaxAurach,"Sebaldsuggeststhat the breakdownof communication
Theotherthreestomightopenupthe possibilityof otherformsof transmission.
riesofDieAusgewanderten
similarlydeveloparoundthwartedoratleasthighlymediatedtestimonialacts that instantiatenew processesof transmission.In both
"and"Ambros
"Paul
thenarrator's
searchforthetracesof the
Adelwarth,"
Bereyter
deadisinstigatedandaidedbyajournalhereceivesfromtheemigrant's
heir,ajournalthatat leastin "Ambros
Adelwarth"
the originalrecipientwas unableto decipher.And in "Dr.HenrySelwyn,"the protagonist'sinabilityto overcomehis
silence about the SecondWorldWarand its aftermath is construed as a possible
reasonforthe narrator'scontinuedinterestin his story.LikeAgamben,Sebaldpostulates the existenceof a gap between the victims and theirwitnesses, although in
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
88
THEGERMAN
QUARTERLY
Winter2004
Sebaldthe gap tends to separatevictimsfrom non-victims--oftenJews from
AndlikeAgamben,Sebald
non-Jews-ratherthan survivorsfromMuselmdinner.
of thisgapisnecessaryto transmitanexperisuggeststhatthecarefulpreservation
encethateludesbothnarrativeandspatialmemory.The textualincorporation
of
and
whose
remains
has
to
be
seen
photographs journals
authenticity
questionable
in thiscontext.Theinsertionof what mayormaynot behistoricaldocumentsallows Sebaldto hoverbetweentheclaimto authenticityandthecreationof fictions
that cometo substituteforirrecoverable
memories.
At firstglance,Sebald'sstylemightseemremotefromthe languagedescribed
and
by Agamben,a languagethat stammersin the faceof the incomprehensible
to
In
another
Sebald's
therebygivesexpression
being'sspeechlessness. contrast,
hypotacticsentencesandhissovereigngraspon thearchivesofhistoryandculture
evincean abilityto shapereferential
materialthat recallsthe ideaof exileas emBut
as
has
Korff
powering.
pointedout, this complexandelevatedlanguagealso
resemblesthat of much prewarGermanliterature(197).The narratorof Die
indeedbecomesa witnessby establishing
himself"ina livinglanAusgewanderten
guageas if it weredead,or in a deadlanguageas if it wereliving"(Agamben161).
Thephotographs
whichconfeaturingGermanwordsandnamesongravestones,
fronttheviewerlikedeadobjectsusurpingthe present,enhancethisimpressionof
the Germanlanguageas a thingof the past.I wouldthusagreethatSebaldfindsa
moreappropriate
approachto the experienceof the Jewishvictimsof the HolocaustthanmanypostwarGermanwriters.But thisis not, as Schlantargues,becausehe restoresa voiceto the voiceless,butbecausehe acceptsthe gapbetween
the speechlessandthe speaking-andbetweenthe descendantsof victimsandof
conditionof his own literature.
perpetrators-asthe irrevocable
asanemigrant-witness
AsIhaveshown,Sebald'sconstructof thenarrator
and
arecentralto thedialecticof thepossibilityandimhispeculiaruseof photographs
possibilityof testimony.Thebook'sfinalsceneoncemoreaddressesthe aporiaof
"Max
bothliteraryandphotographic
testimony.As severalcriticshaveremarked,
incormost
dismantlestheideaof photographic
Aurach"
objectivity, noticeablyby
poratinga well-knownphotographicforgery.Lessattentionhas beenpaidto a
biasof a phostrikinginstancein whichthe narratorreflectson the questionable
the violencesufferedby the victims,adoptsan
tographerwho, while registering
angleanda perspectivethat deniesthat verysuffering.Thisis relatedin the last
memoryof an
pagesof thebook,whena seriesof associationssparksthenarrator's
exhibitionof recentlydiscoveredphotographsfromthe ghetto Litzmannstadt
Thetextmakesit clearthatin seeking
whichhesawthepreviousyearinFrankfurt.
to documentthe economicimportanceof the ghettofactories,the photographer
This photographer
is the paradigGeneweinwas producingNazi propaganda.
maticnon-witnesswho managesto avoidan encounterwith his subjectseven
whilefixatingthemin a mediumgenerallybelievedto behighlyaccurate.Theviolence involvedin this kind of photographyalso arisesfrom the fact that, as the narrator surmises, the ghetto inhabitants were allowed to look up from their work
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Sebald
GARLOFF:
89
only for the moment it took to take the photograph.While looking at a photographof threeyoung women at a weaving frame,the narratorrealizesthat he, too,
is implicatedin this violence becausehe inevitablyadopts the same stance as the
photographer:
HintereinemlotrechtenWebrahmensitzendreijunge,vielleichtzwanzigjThrige
Frauen.Der Teppich,an dem sie kniipfen,hat ein unregelm~figgeometrisches
Muster,das mich auch in seinenFarbenerinnertan das MusterunseresWohnzimmersofaszu Hause.Werdie jungenFrauensind, das weifl ich nicht. Wegen
des Gegenlichts,daseinf1lltdurchdasFensterim Hintergrund,kannich ihreAuzu mir,dennich
gen genaunichterkennen,aberichspare,daf siealledreiherschauen
an
der
an
der
der
mit
seinem
Stelle,
Genewein,
steheja
Rechnungsfihrer,
Fotoapparat
gestandenhat.Die mittlerederdreijungenFrauenhat hellblondesHaarundgleicht
irgendwieeinerBraut.Die Weberinzu ihrerLinkenhdltden Kopfein wenig seitwartsgeneigt,wdhrenddieaufderrechtenSeiteso unverwandtundunerbittlich
mich ansieht,da/tiches nichtlangeauszuhalten
vermag.Ich iiberlege,wie die drei
wohl geheifbenhaben-Roza, LuisaundLeaoderNona,Decumaund Morta,die
T6chterderNacht, mit Spindelund Fadenund Schere.(355,my emphasis)
The violence involved in the productionof these photographs,which is literally "broughthome"to the narratorwhen he recognizesin the women's weaving
cloth the colorsand patternsof his own sofa at home, explainsperhapsthe uneasiness the women's gaze inspiresin him. The narrator'sfinal thought, which offers
two differentinterpretationsof the photograph,one mundane and one mythical,
is, in fact, an attempt to avoida confrontationthat becomes increasinglydifficult
to endure.His conjecturethat the threewomen might bearthe names of the three
Roman goddessesof fate curiouslyinvertsthe camp situation:the women, whose
lives areentirelyat the whim of the camp guards,aresaid to have the power over
life and death, including,it appears,that of the narrator.The mythic interpretation both expressesthe narrator'shelplessnessand diminishesthat helplessnessby
bestowing upon him the power of narration.It is interesting,in this regard,to consider Sebald'sown ideas about this power:
Die entscheidendeDifferenzzwischenderschriftstellerischen
Methodeundder
ebenso erfahrungsgierigen
wie erfahrungsscheuen
Technikdes Photographierensbesteht(....) darin,daf dasBeschreibendasEingedenken,
dasPhotographieren jedochdasVergessenbef6rdert.Photographiensind die Mementoseinerim
und im VerschwindenbegriffenenWelt, gemalte und geZerst6rungsprozefS
schriebeneBilderhingegenhabenein Lebenin dieZukunfthineinundverstehen
sich als Dokumenteeines Bewuftseins, dem etwas an derFortfiihrungdes Lebens gelegenist.23
The concluding scene of Die Ausgewanderten
betrays a more complex underof
the
role
of
literature
than
Sebald's
hierarchical
distinction between
standing
photographicreproductionand aesthetic construction suggests. If we equate the
symbolic excess of myth with the creativepower of literature,this scene shows
that literatureindeed entails a "Fortffihrungdes Lebens"or at least generatesnew
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
90
THEGERMAN
QUARTERLY
Winter2004
speech.Witness this logic of productionin the last sentence of Die Ausgewanderten:
whereasthe everydaynames "Roza,Luisaund Lea"requireno commentary or follow-up sentence, the mythic names "Nona,Decuma und Morta"are followed by
an explicativephrasethat describesthem in moredetailand elaboratestheirmeaning. Yet if the book's final scene associates photography with the questionable
stance of the bystanderwho observeswithout truly seeing, literatureis shown to
originate in the narrator'sinability to meet the victim's gaze, another form of
missed encounter.This primalscene of literature,which raisesthe question of the
writer's guilt and complicity in the crime of genocide, leaves us with the impression that literarytestimony is just as questionable as it is necessary.
Notes
'A portionof the articlewas presentedaspartof the panel"Imagining
Catastrophe
in GermanCultureII"at the 2002 GSAConferencein SanDiego.Manythanksto the
participantsandthe audienceof this panelfortheirstimulatingdiscussion.I alsowish
to thankDagmarDeuring,StefaniEngelstein,StefanieHarris,MichaelIrmscher,and
Todd Presnerfor their commentson earlierdraftsof this article.
2SeeespeciallyFelmanandLaub,Testimony:
"onehasto conceiveof the worldof the
Holocaustas a worldin whichtheveryimaginationof the Otherwas no longerpossible.
Therewas no longeranotherto whichone couldsay"Thou"in the hopeof beingheard,
of beingrecognizedas a subject,of beinganswered.The historicalrealityof the Holothe verypossibilityof
caustbecame,thus,a realitywhich extinguishedphilosophically
or
of
another"
the
of
to,
(81f.).Forincisivereaddress, possibility appealing,
turning
markson the shift in the debatesaboutHolocaustrepresentation,see Baer195-201.
3Felmanand Laubemphasizethe processcharacterand the subjectivityof the
knowledgeproducedin testimony.See,forinstance,the survivorwho misremembered
the numberof chimneysblownupin Auschwitz,a factualerrorthatis insignificantbecauseshe testifiedto the will to resistratherthan to the factsof resistance(59-61).
4Sucha "hermeneuticof exile"is operativealsoin EdwardSaid'sinfluentialarticle
betweenthe
on Exile."Saidwas amongthe firstto describethe discrepancy
"Reflections
actualexperienceof exileandits imaginationin twentieth-centuryliterature:"atmost
mostpeoplerarelyextheliteratureaboutexileobjectifiesananguishanda predicament
as beneficiallyhuthis
literature
of
the
exile
think
first
but
to
hand;
informing
perience
manisticis to banalizeits mutilations,the lossesit inflictson thosewho sufferthem"
(174).Despitehis emphasison the harshrealityof livedexile,Saidendshis articleon a
ratheroptimisticnote,ashe contemplatesthenew perspectives
openedupby thedeparture fromhome: "Mostpeopleareprincipallyawareof one culture,one setting,one
home;exilesareawareof at leasttwo, andthis pluralityof visiongivesriseto an awareness of simultaneousdimensions,an awarenessthat-to borrowa phrasefrommusic-is contrapuntal"
(186).ThoughIsraelis in Felman'sview notyet anotherplaceof exof Jewishness"(247),heremphasison the doubleperspective
inside
rather
but
"the
ile,
affordedby Srebnik'semigrationrecallsSaid'sessay.
5The expression"humanbeing"is, in fact,not quiteappropriatebecauseAgamben
emphasizesthe ways in which testimonyarticulatesthe dialecticbetweenthe human
and "desubjectification."
and the inhuman,and between "subjectification"
6CathyCaruthsimilarlyclaimsthat exile propelstraumatizedsubjectsinto con-
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Sebald
GARLOFF:
91
tact with others, thereby ensuring the transmission of trauma and the beginning of a
history always already shared with others. See Caruth, UnclaimedExperienceand
Trauma, 151-57. For a critique of Caruth, especially of her reliance on the idea of a
"face-to-faceencounter between a victim, who enacts or performs his or her traumatic
experience, and a witness who listens and is in turn contaminated by the catastrophe,"
see Leys 284.
7 More recently, Felman has analyzed the Eichmann trial as such a site where the
presence of survivor testimony added "anew idiomto the discourse on the Holocaust"
("Theaters of Justice" 201). Felman argues that in her jurisprudentialconservatism,
Hannah Arendtwas unable to see this dimension of the trial, the necessity of the prosecutors' attempt to speak for the dead. The accumulation of survivor testimony does
not turn justice into revenge (which is what Arendt criticizes) or situate the Holocaust
within a "lachrymose"model of Jewish history. Rather, it realigns private and public
realms and thereby creates new modes of speaking about the Holocaust. The Eichmann trial is "a legal processof translationof thousands of private, secret traumas into
one collective, public, and communally acknowledged one" (227, emphasis original),
thus enabling the victims to appropriate their own history.
8 This sense of departure rather than arrivalis also indicated in the book's title Die
Ausgewanderten(my emphasis).
9See especially 230f. and 244. For the theme of the living dead, see also the narrator's remarks that Manchester is a "von Millionen von toten und lebendigen Seelen
bewohnten Stadt" (221) and a "Totenhaus oder Mausoleum" (223).
10Cathy Caruth has called attention to the duality of trauma as an experience of
both death and survival.
11See also the
epithet "Industriejerusalem"(245) for Manchester, which acquires a
special meaning because of the association between industrial production and industrial genocide. The Holocaust appears here as a dystopian destination, a perversion of
messianic longing.
12 For a similar
change into English that emphasizes the conventional character of
an English phraseand Aurach's belonging to the collective of its speakers,see 259. That
Aurach and the narrator spoke English with each other becomes clear when Aurach
says: "das Deutsche, das ich seit 1939, seit dem Abschied von den Eltern auf dem
Miinchner Flughafen Oberwiesenfeld, nicht ein einziges Mal mehr gesprochen habe"
(271).
13 Initially there are still markersof the narrator'sinterventions, including the use of
the subjunctive and other indications of indirect speech ("sagteAurach"),but they grad-
ually disappear.
14 See Kacandes (89-140) for an
expansion of the psychoanalytic model of trauma
into a narratologicalmodel that takes into account the different levels and instances of
literary narrative. Kacandes makes a useful distinction between six "communicative
circuits" established in literary testimony.
15 Here we see the limited applicability of the model proposed by Felman and Laub,
for whom the survivor's return to the site of historical trauma can initiate a processof
working-through because the survivor's memory can counterbalance the absence of
tangible physical traces in the camps. Yet in "MaxAurach,"the narrator'sjourney to
another site of trauma leads only to the realization of absence, in part because it is the
site of the trauma of the other.
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
92
THE GERMANQUARTERLY
Winter2004
16For the public's attention to dead
Jews and the concomitant lack of interest in liv-
ing Jews in postwar Germany, see Gilman, "Jewish Writers in Contemporary Germany," 249f.
7One exception is the photo of the boat ticket on page 338, which also contains
words. However, this photo still belongs to the same journey motif.
18 On this difference between knowledge and recognition, see also Bernard-Donals
and Glejzer, 16, 73.
19It is true that the other three stories locate the narrator'sorigins more clearly in
Germany. However, his own background remains remarkablyvague throughout the
book. Furthermore, it is not entirely clear whether the narratoris the same in all four
stories. While there is nothing that explicitly contradicts this assumption, there is also
nothing that makes it absolutely compelling.
20 See also Lacan's conception of the real as a "missed encounter" in his FourFundamental Concepts,53-64.
21 This is not to imply that the narrator'sstory of Aurach's life could have fully cured
Aurach's amnesia, just as the mother's memoir could not have given Aurach full
knowledge of his family's past. The "Laguneder Erinnerungslosigkeit"(259) in Aurach
seems too vast and too deep to be "filledin" by these documents. In fact, the mother's
memoir can itself be regardedas a screen memory in the Freudiansense, since she hardly
ever mentions the extremely difficult circumstances under which it was written.
22 After this article was accepted for publication, J. J. Long's essay "History, Narrative, and Photography in W.G. Sebald'sDie Ausgewanderten"
appeared,which analyzes
the therapeutic function of narrative in more detail. Basing his interpretation on
Freudianconcepts of trauma and working-through, Long describes the integrative effect of narrative memory: "traumatic dreams and visions are defined by an ineluctable
literalness that cannot be interpreted in terms of the pleasure principle. The purpose of
therapy is to turn these compulsive, 'traumatic' memoires into genuinely 'narrative'
memories via a process of working-through. In Die Ausgewanderten,numerous characters attempt, with the aid of the therapist-narrator, to take possession and control of
memories that would otherwise threaten to take possession of them. Visual images, in
other words, are integrated within a narrative that allows them to lose their compulsive character and take their place as elements of a past that is recognized as past"
(125). While I agree that Sebald invokes the notion of therapeutic narration in Die
Ausgewanderten,I would argue that the narrator is not in control of the therapy but
rather, as his initial inability to confront Aurach's past suggests, just as much in need
of therapy as his narrative subjects. Furthermore,as I have attempted to show, the disruptive moments of narratives, especially the ways in which they fail to reach their addressees, are at least as important as their integrative power.
23W. G. Sebald, Die Beschreibungdes Ungliicks,178. Quoted in Korff 175.
Works Cited
Agamben, Giorgio.RemnantsofAuschwitz:TheWitnessand theArchive.Trans.Daniel HellerRoazen. New York:Zone Books, 1999.
Baer,Ulrich.Remnantsof Song:Traumaand theExperience
ofModernityin CharlesBaudelaire
and PaulCelan. Stanford:Stanford UP, 2000.
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Sebald
GARLOFF:
93
on Photography.
Trans.RichardHoward. New
Barthes, Roland. CameraLucida:Reflections
York:Farrar,Straus and Giroux, 1981.
TheHolocaust
Bernard-Donals,Michael,and RichardGlejzer.BetweenWitnessand Testimony:
2001.
SUNY
and theLimitsof Representation.
P,
Albany:
Caruth, Cathy. UnclaimedExperience:Trauma,Narrative,and History.Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins UP, 1996.
in Memory.Baltimore:Johns Hopkins UP, 1995.
ed. Trauma:Explorations
--,
De Certeau,Michel. ThePracticeofEverydayLife.Trans.Steven Rendall.Berkeley:U of California P, 1984.
Felman,Shoshana."Theatersof Justice:Arendt in Jerusalem,the EichmannTrial,and the
Redefinition of Legal Meaning in the Wake of the Holocaust." CriticalInquiry27.2
(2001): 201-38.
in Literature,
Crisesof Witnessing
Felman,Shoshana,and Dori Laub.Testimony:
Psychoanalysis
and History.New York:Routledge,1992.
Gilman, Sander L. "Jewish Writers in Contemporary Germany: The Dead Author
the Other.Lincoln:U of NebraskaP, 1991. 249-78.
Speaks."Inscribing
Harris, Stefanie. "The Return of the Dead: Memory and Photography in Sebald'sDie
GermanQuarterly74.4 (2001): 379-91.
Ausgewanderten."
Reisenim
Juhl,Eva."DieWahrheitiiber das Unglick: Zu WG. SebaldDie Ausgewanderten."
vondenPilgerberichten
Diskurs:Modellederliterarischen
biszurPostmoderne.
Fremderfahrung
Ed.Anne Fuchsand Theo Harden,with the assistanceof EvaJuhl.Heidelberg:C. Winter, 1995. 640-59.
Literature
andtheTalkExplosion.
Lincoln:U of NebraskaP,2001.
Kacandes,Irene.TalkFiction:
In derSpracheder
Korff,Sigrid."DieTreuezum Detail--W G. SebaldsDie Ausgewanderten."
Neue
Lektiiren
und
Ed. Stephan
deutschsprachiger
NachkriegsGegenwartsliteratur.
Tdter:
Braese.Opladen:WestdeutscherVerlag,1998. 167-97.
Trans.Alan Sheridan.
Lacan,JeanJacques.TheFourFundamental
ConceptsofPsychoanalysis.
New York:WW Norton, 1978.
A Genealogy.Chicago:U of Chicago P, 1999.
Leys, Ruth. Trauma:
Long, J. J. "History,Narrative, and Photography in WG. Sebald'sDie Ausgewanderten."
ModernLanguageReview98:1 (2003): 117-37.
Parry,Ann. "Idiomsfor the Unrepresentable:Post-WarFiction and the Shoah."European
Studies27:4 (1997): 417-32.
onExileand OtherEssays.Cambridge:HarSaid,Edward."Reflectionson Exile."Reflections
vard UP,2030. 173-86.
and theHolocaust.New
Schlant, Ernestine.TheLanguageof Silence:WestGermanLiterature
York:Routledge, 1999.
VierlangeErzihlungen.Frankfurta. M.: Fischer,1994.
Sebald,W G. Die Ausgewanderten:
. Die Beschreibung
des Ungliicks:Zur dsterreichischen
Literaturvon Stifterbis Handke.
Frankfurta. M.: Fischer,1994.
Sontag, Susan. '"AMind in Mourning."Wherethe StressFalls:Essays. New York:Farrar,
Straus,and Giroux, 2001. 41-48.
This content downloaded from 194.66.226.95 on Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:25 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions