Memoirs of the blind: W. G. Sebald’s die ausgewanderten

W. G. Sebald’s literary project is bound to an attempt at restitution which both obscures and illuminates the past. Through the use of photography, in particular, it foregrounds the visual in trying to recollect the past or recuperate that which has been lost. Yet these gestures are marked by blind spots which persist as a reminder of the belated perspective from which Sebald writes: he was born too late to know directly the violence of the Second World War and the Holocaust, but these traumatic events still overshadow his work. Thus, Sebald’s narratives might constitute an attempt at restitution, insofar