A journey on foot along the Suffolk coast in 1992 that is told by a nameless narrator forms the backbone of The Rings of Saturn.
The work fuses historical analysis, biography, travel writing and philosophy, forming a powerful meditation on a variety of episodes from Europe’s recent past.
The book’s narrator seeks the heart, nature and story of each person, object or place that it casts its eye on, regarding all as potential “messengers from the past”. We understand that all is interlinked as he shifts the reader’s focus between the seismic and the peripheral of past and present.
The book’s imaginative and eloquent text is interspersed with photographs and other archive materials – postcards, newsreel stills, ticket stubs, maps – each deepening the resonance of the narratives they accompany.
Sebald was also a university lecturer. A note from his creative writing workshop underlines his own approach: “It’s hard to write something original about Napoleon, but one of his minor aides is another matter.” This philosophy informs much of Sebald’s writing – the effects of grand characters and events on the individual.
In producing much of Glasgow Museums’ digital interpretation, storytelling is central to my role. It’s the smaller histories that form the centre of the stories that I help tell about our collections.
Sebald’s work reminds me not only of the power in this close focus, but also of the wealth of possibilities that visual storytelling offers.
David Scott is the digital and new media curator at Glasgow Museums
The work fuses historical analysis, biography, travel writing and philosophy, forming a powerful meditation on a variety of episodes from Europe’s recent past.
The book’s narrator seeks the heart, nature and story of each person, object or place that it casts its eye on, regarding all as potential “messengers from the past”. We understand that all is interlinked as he shifts the reader’s focus between the seismic and the peripheral of past and present.
The book’s imaginative and eloquent text is interspersed with photographs and other archive materials – postcards, newsreel stills, ticket stubs, maps – each deepening the resonance of the narratives they accompany.
Sebald was also a university lecturer. A note from his creative writing workshop underlines his own approach: “It’s hard to write something original about Napoleon, but one of his minor aides is another matter.” This philosophy informs much of Sebald’s writing – the effects of grand characters and events on the individual.
In producing much of Glasgow Museums’ digital interpretation, storytelling is central to my role. It’s the smaller histories that form the centre of the stories that I help tell about our collections.
Sebald’s work reminds me not only of the power in this close focus, but also of the wealth of possibilities that visual storytelling offers.
David Scott is the digital and new media curator at Glasgow Museums
