Motiv samoubistva u Zebaldovom romanu Iseljenici

Abstract

In his academic articles, which preceded the publication of the novel The Emigrants, W.G. Sebald studied the works of Primo Levi and Jean Améry, whose texts about concentration camps had a great influence on his understanding of the Nazi past and its re/construction in literature. By studying the topic of suicide in old age, Sebald realized that he had contacts with some persons who ended up in the same way. Based on the voluntary death of the characters from the novel - Henry Selwyn, Paul Bereyter, Ambros Adelwarth, the novel The Emigrants raises the question of whether continuing to live in the shadow of the Holocaust is more difficult than death. The aim of this paper is to, on the basis of the selected novel and the theoretical writings of Primo Levi, Jean Améry, and W.G. Sebald, analyze the question of whether survivors envy the dead and why they surrender to the death voluntarily.