000			02778cam a2200313 a 4500
001			034342
005			20231009192619.0
008			100604s2004 nyua b 000 0 eng
010			_a2004269961
020			_a9780375756573
050	0	0	_aPT405 _b.S4313 2004
082	0	4	_a833 SEB
100			_aSebald, W. G. _q(Winfried Georg) _d(, 1944-2001)
240	1	0	_aLuftkrieg und Literatur _l. English
245	1	0	_aOn the natural history of destruction _c/ W.G. Sebald ; translated by Anthea Bell
250			_aModern Library pbk. ed
260			_aNew York _b: Modern Library _c, 2004.
300			_ax, 202 p. _b: ill. _c; 21 cm.
500			_a"Originally published in German by Hanser as Luftkrieg und Literatur in 1999 and in slightly different form:--T.p. verso.
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 193-202).
505	0	0	_aAir war and literature : Zürich lectures -- Between the devil and the deep blue sea : on Alfred Andersch -- Against the irreversible : on Jean Améry -- The remorse of the heart : on memory and cruelty in the work of Peter Weiss.
520			_aW.G. Sebald completed this extraordinary and important -- and already controversial -- book before his untimely death in December 2001. On the Natural History of Destruction is W.G. Sebald's harrowing and precise investigation of one of the least examined silences of our time. In it, the acclaimed novelist examines the devastation of German cities by Allied bombardment, and the reasons for the astonishing absence of this unprecedented trauma from German history and culture. This void in history is in part a repression of things -- such as the death by fire of the city of Hamburg at the hands of the RAF -- too terrible to bear. But rather than record the crises about them, writers sought to retrospectively justify their actions under the Nazis. For Sebald, this is an example of deliberate cultural amnesia; his analysis of its effects in and outside Germany has already provoked angry and painful debate. Sebald's incomparable novels are rooted in meticulous observation; his essays are novelistic. They include his childhood recollections of the war that spurred his horror at the collective amnesia around him. There are moments of black humour and, throughout, the unmatched sensitivity of Sebald's intelligence. This book is a vital study of suffering and forgetting, of the morality hidden in artistic decisions, and of both compromised and genuine heroics.
650		0	_aWorld War, 1939-1945 _x--Literature and the war
650		0	_aGerman literature _y--20th century _x--History and criticism
650			_aBombing, aerial _z-Germany _y-20th century
650		0	_aWorld War, 1939-1945 _x--Destruction and pillage _z--Germany
700	1		_aBell, Anthea
942			_cMO
999			_c244562 _d244562