Absent Jews and Invisible Executioners: WG Sebald and the Holocaust | Will Self

Sebald Lecture, 11 janvier 2010, Kings Place, Londres. (A télécharger ici.)

Le Times Literary Supplement a publié une version remaniée de la conférence : Sebald, the good German? Will Self on W. G. Sebald’s writing about the Holocaust, le 26 janvier 2010.

> Présentation sur le site du British Centre for Literary Translation

WG Sebald's novels are almost unique among the narrative fiction written by non-Jewish Germans in the postwar period for their depiction of the lives of Jews affected by the Holocaust, but to what extent was Sebald's approach to the Holocaust itself symptomatic of a deeper and intransigent form of denial?
In this year's Sebald Lecture, Will Self will analyse Sebald's historical writing in the light of the evolving historical understanding of the Holocaust and the part the German people took in it.
When it comes to such crimes against humanity, is it possible for there to be a literature either by, or about the perpetrators, and what purpose might such writings fulfil?
The Sebald Lecture also celebrates the best in contemporary translation, with the presentation of the annual Translation Prizes (administered by the Society of Authors) and presented by Sir Peter Stothard, Editor of the Times Literary Supplement. These are awarded to outstanding translators for work published during the last year.

The Sebald Lecture is given annually on an aspect of literature in translation. Previously known as the St Jerome Lecture, the lecture was renamed in honour of the founder of BCLT, the late W G Sebald (1944–2001) who died eight years ago just as his remarkable voice was beginning to reach a wider public. 'Max' was a German writer who opted to live in the UK and continue writing in German.
His novels and essays include The Rings of Saturn, The Emigrants, Austerlitz,and On the Natural History of Destruction and established him as a leading writer of the 20th century.
Previous speakers have included Seamus Heaney, Marina Warner, Susan Sontag, Carlos Fuentes, Louis de Bernières, David Constantine and Hans Magnus Enzensberger. An edited transcript of the 2008 lecture given by Louis de Bernières is available in a previous issue of In Other Words.

Will Self is the author of seven novels, four novellas and five collections of shorter fiction, all of which have been extensively translated. He has worked as a journalist for a plethora of publications and six collections of his journalism and essays have appeared in book form.
His novel How the Dead Live was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award, he won the Geoffrey Faber Award for his first short story collection,and the Wodehouse Prize for his last novel The Butt.He has also received the Aga Khan Award for Fiction. He is a frequent broadcaster on television and radio and lives in South London with his wife, the journalist Deborah Orr and two of their four children.