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The Emigrants (novel)
Encyclopedia
The Emigrants is a 1992 novel
by German
writer W. G. Sebald
. It won the Berlin Literature Prize, the Literatur Nord Prize, and the Johannes Bobrowski Medal.
It is divided into four sections, each focusing on a different person:
Selwyn is the estranged husband of Sebald's landlady, who fought in the First World War and has a propensity for gardening and tending to animals. He confides in Sebald about his family's immigration to England
from Lithuania
, and suspects that it is this secretive, alien past that helped dissolve his relationship with his wife.
Bereyter was Sebald's childhood teacher in a town referenced in the text only as "S". A quarter Jewish, he found employment difficult in the period leading up to the Second World War, although he eventually served in the Wehrmacht
. Teaching in the small school after the war, Bereyter found a passion for his students while living a lonely, quiet life. In later years, his eyesight began to fail and he moved to France
, where he met and spent much time with Mme Landau, from whom Sebald obtains most of his information about Bereyter.
The subtitle is a paraphrase from Vorschule der Ästhetik by Jean Paul
. "Thus, the great Hamann
is a deep sky full of telescopic stars, and some nebulae cannot be pierced by the eye."
The author's great uncle, Adelwarth was the travelling companion of an affluent young aviator gifted with much luck at gambling and a wayward attitude towards life. In his youth, he accompanied this man across Europe, and into Turkey and Asia Minor, before his companion fell ill and was sent to a mental institution. Afterwards, Adelwarth was the butler of the young man's family, living on Long Island until their death.
The subtitle is a paraphrase of a line in Tichborne's Elegy by Chidiock Tichborne
, with "tares" (weeds) changed to "tears".
As a young man in Manchester
the narrator befriends an expatriate German-Jewish painter. Years later the artist gives the narrator his mother's history of her idyllic life as a girl in a Bavarian village. It was written as she and her husband awaited deportation to the East and death.
In the original German version, the character's name is Max Aurach, which is closer to the name of his real-world inspiration, Frank Auerbach
. It was changed to Ferber in the translations.
Bereyter is also portrayed as an outsider, even whilst living in his native Germany. As a Jew, he is a second-class citizen, and after the war, he is an intellectual living in a small provincial town.
, the consummate emigre and recorder of the emigrant experience, is referenced, as an individual, explicitly (in 'Dr. Henry Selwyn') and implicitly (usually as 'the butterfly man') throughout the book. Several characters lives seem to intersect with Nabokov's at various points, in a German spa town, in Ithaca, New York, and in Switzerland. Some of these incidents are adapted from Nabokov's 'Speak, Memory.'
The introduction of Nabokov into at least three of the four parts of the book is rather disarming. Sebald's insistence on letting his characters speak for themselves and his tactic of introducing photographic evidence lead the reader to believe she is reading an emotive biography or powerful documentary rather than a novel. The deliberate introduction of the 'Nabokov motif' re-establishes the authorial presence and the fictive strand of the book, but also helps draw attention to the wider themes that touch all the work's characters.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
writer W. G. Sebald
W. G. Sebald
W. G. Maximilian Sebald was a German writer and academic. At the time of his death at the age of 57, he was being cited by many literary critics as one of the greatest living authors and had been tipped as a possible future winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature...
. It won the Berlin Literature Prize, the Literatur Nord Prize, and the Johannes Bobrowski Medal.
Plot introduction
The Emigrants is a novel in which Sebald discusses research into the lives of four different characters, each of whom had some sort of interaction with the narrator, presumed to be Sebald. As with most of Sebald's work, the text includes many black and white, unlabeled photographs and strays sharply from general formats of plot and narrative.It is divided into four sections, each focusing on a different person:
Dr Henry Selwyn
Subtitled: And the last remnants memory destroys. (Zerstöret das Letzte / die Erinnerung nicht)Selwyn is the estranged husband of Sebald's landlady, who fought in the First World War and has a propensity for gardening and tending to animals. He confides in Sebald about his family's immigration to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
from Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, and suspects that it is this secretive, alien past that helped dissolve his relationship with his wife.
Paul Bereyter
Subtitled: There is mist that no eye can dispel. (Manche Nebelflecken / löset kein Auge auf)Bereyter was Sebald's childhood teacher in a town referenced in the text only as "S". A quarter Jewish, he found employment difficult in the period leading up to the Second World War, although he eventually served in the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
. Teaching in the small school after the war, Bereyter found a passion for his students while living a lonely, quiet life. In later years, his eyesight began to fail and he moved to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, where he met and spent much time with Mme Landau, from whom Sebald obtains most of his information about Bereyter.
The subtitle is a paraphrase from Vorschule der Ästhetik by Jean Paul
Jean Paul
Jean Paul , born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, was a German Romantic writer, best known for his humorous novels and stories.-Life and work:...
. "Thus, the great Hamann
Hamann
People with the German surname Hamann include:*A. P. Hamann , American politician*Brigitte Hamann , historian*Dietmar Hamann , footballer*Evelyn Hamann , actress...
is a deep sky full of telescopic stars, and some nebulae cannot be pierced by the eye."
Ambros Adelwarth
Subtitled: My field of corn is but a crop of tears.The author's great uncle, Adelwarth was the travelling companion of an affluent young aviator gifted with much luck at gambling and a wayward attitude towards life. In his youth, he accompanied this man across Europe, and into Turkey and Asia Minor, before his companion fell ill and was sent to a mental institution. Afterwards, Adelwarth was the butler of the young man's family, living on Long Island until their death.
The subtitle is a paraphrase of a line in Tichborne's Elegy by Chidiock Tichborne
Chidiock Tichborne
Chidiock Tichborne is remembered as an English conspirator and poet.-Biography:He was born in Southampton sometime after 24 August 1562 to Roman Catholic parents, Peter Tichborne and his wife Elizabeth . His birth date has been given as circa 1558 in many sources, though unverified, and thus...
, with "tares" (weeds) changed to "tears".
Max Ferber
Subtitled: They come when night falls to search for life. (Im Abenddämmer kommen sie / und suchen nach dem Leben)As a young man in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
the narrator befriends an expatriate German-Jewish painter. Years later the artist gives the narrator his mother's history of her idyllic life as a girl in a Bavarian village. It was written as she and her husband awaited deportation to the East and death.
In the original German version, the character's name is Max Aurach, which is closer to the name of his real-world inspiration, Frank Auerbach
Frank Auerbach
Frank Helmut Auerbach is a painter born in Germany although he has been a naturalised British citizen since 1947.-Biography:Auerbach was born in Berlin, the son of Max Auerbach, a patent lawyer, and Charlotte Nora Burchardt, who had trained as an artist...
. It was changed to Ferber in the translations.
Explanation of the novel's title
Each of the section-title characters is an emigrant who left Germany (or a Germanised community). Sebald discusses how each left their native country and what they have become in their new lands. How much of Germany and emigration remains with them as they slide towards death under foreign skies? The narrator, whose biography appears similar to that of the author, is also an emigrant but his story is less explicit.Major themes
The work is concerned very much with memory and feelings of foreignness. In two awkward scenes, Dr. Selwyn, whom the narrator does not know very well, confesses memories about his earlier life. He tells the story of a man he met in Switzerland in the time immediately prior to World War I, and how he felt a deeper companionship with this man than he ever did his wife. He also divulges how his family emigrated from Lithuania as a young boy, and tries to get the narrator to reveal how he feels being an emigrant from Germany living in England.Bereyter is also portrayed as an outsider, even whilst living in his native Germany. As a Jew, he is a second-class citizen, and after the war, he is an intellectual living in a small provincial town.
Allusions/references to other works
Russian author Vladimir NabokovVladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
, the consummate emigre and recorder of the emigrant experience, is referenced, as an individual, explicitly (in 'Dr. Henry Selwyn') and implicitly (usually as 'the butterfly man') throughout the book. Several characters lives seem to intersect with Nabokov's at various points, in a German spa town, in Ithaca, New York, and in Switzerland. Some of these incidents are adapted from Nabokov's 'Speak, Memory.'
The introduction of Nabokov into at least three of the four parts of the book is rather disarming. Sebald's insistence on letting his characters speak for themselves and his tactic of introducing photographic evidence lead the reader to believe she is reading an emotive biography or powerful documentary rather than a novel. The deliberate introduction of the 'Nabokov motif' re-establishes the authorial presence and the fictive strand of the book, but also helps draw attention to the wider themes that touch all the work's characters.