An uncanny philosophy of history: W. G. Sebald’s Austerlitz

Abstract

This essay examines W. G. Sebald’s Austerlitz (2001), with the aim of identifying the modes of figuration of time and history in this novel. One argues that the features of Sebald’s prose, such as the slowness, the frequent digressions, and the old-fashionedness of the diction and of the narrative tone, aim to produce effects of estrangement, affecting the ordinary modes of time experience which are common to the novel’s readers. One also argues that the main character’s thoughts about modern temporality are related to Freud’s remarks on the “uncanny”. In this sense, this essay points out that the “uncanny” is for Sebald an unfathomable characteristic of modern historicity, which can only be investigated by means of a “metaphysics of history”.