Perpetrators' Legacies

Post-imperial Condition in Sebald and McEwan

By: Vladimir Biti

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Paperback | 21 May 2026 | Edition Number 1

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Paperback
262 Pages

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22.86 x 15.24 x 1.4

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The book presents Winfried Georg Sebald and Ian McEwan as paradigmatic post-imperial writers who enmeshed in the hierarchies of power inherited from their imperial times, strive to disentangle themselves from that burdensome legacy. To achieve this, they undertake a subtle detachment from the analogously implicated subject positions of their protagonists. In Sebaldâs works, these positions are closer to the historical victims of the Third Reich who used to suppress their past experiences, whereas in McEwanâs works, they incline toward the systemic âbeneficiariesâ of the British Empire who used to overlook their present privileges. However, in distinction to their protagonistsâ denied involvements, both authors recognize their implication in their protagonistsâ pasts and presents. Such a detachment from familiar protagonists requires the consent of unknown and scattered readers with whom they forge a long-distance solidarity, connective association or complicitous alliance. Thus, to exempt themselves from one complicity, they enter another one.

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