Photography in Sebald
The art of photography is an important element in W.G. Seabald's novel The Emigrants. The use of photographs is an essential source of support for the main theme in the novel which deals with memories. The implementation of the various photographs in the novel show that Sebald does not take his readers imagination for granted. Sebald presents his readers with images, so that they are able to experience his descriptions of certain events first hand. Although many of the photographs seem almost unimportant to the story, they serve the purpose of showing the reader how simple images can awaken unwanted memories. The Emigrants is a novel that gives the impression of reading someone's personal memoirs; the use of photography also contributes to this feeling because it helps to connect fiction with the feeling of actual accounts of history. Firstly, Sebald's use of photographs indicates that he does not take his readers' imaginations for granted, therefore he provides them with pictures in order to make sure that they obtain the proper images that he wants them to. Sebald is not sure that people will remember the descriptions that he has accounted in the novel and feels that if the readers are given visual images, they are more lik . . .
This idea is seen when the narrator describes the "tea-maid;" ". Although the photographs are used for much more than simply a visual tactic for memorization, one can see through this quote that Sebald's own insecurities with his memory are part of the reason behind the photographs in the novel. By adding the photographs into the novel Sebald makes a definite union with his story and reality. This connection in the novel is what makes one able to see The Emigrants as a memoir, therefore possessing stories of the truth rather than the fiction that it is. Sebald makes the connection between memoirs and photographs in his novel, ". The connection between fiction and reality in this novel is very important. The boy sitting at the desk is an example of an image that is triggered by a bad thought or feeling. Sebald chose to write a fictitious novel that deals with an actual event in history. The first photograph that appears in the fourth section of the novel is that of a "tea-maid. All the pictures have an eerie element to them that leave the readers with a sense of uneasiness about the way in which the characters have had to live their lives in the past, and how the past continues to haunt them in the future. Therefore, the use of these seemingly unimportant pictures maintains Sebald's writing style throughout the book, in that the images of a "tea-maid" or a boy sitting at his desk are far more important in means of what they represent rather than the actual images themselves. There is a line in the novel where the narrator is talking about Ferber's ability to observe and remember faces; the narrator states, "whereas I for my part could never manage to picture those not present at any given moment" (Sebald, 163).
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Acceptance Essays
