On the Natural History of Destruction (Magill’s Literary Annual 2004)
At a glance:
- Author: W. G. Sebald
- First Published: 1999
- Type of Work: Current affairs and history
- Setting: Europe
- Genres: Nonfiction, Current affairs, History, Translation
- Subjects: Europe or Europeans, 1940’s, World War II, England or English people, Victims, War, Nazism or Nazis, Bombs, Disasters, Fire, Germany or German people, Holocaust, Jewish, Great Britain, Concentration camps
- Locales: Europe
W. G. Sebald loved photography, but he was deeply troubled by the contrasting pictures he reproduced in “Air War and Literature,” the chapter that is both the opening and the centerpiece of his notable book On the Natural History of Destruction. One postcard pairing shows the German city of Frankfurt am Main Gestern (yesterday) and Heute (today). Although the same cityscape is depicted, the scenes are utterly different. Dated 1947, one photograph shows a bombed and ruined city; the other, dated 1997, portrays glistening skyscrapers that seemingly bear no witness...
[The entire page is 2095 words long]
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