Helen Finch – författare

This study shows that the potential for subversion personified by the German writer W. G. Sebald's solitary males is essential for understanding his work, while also demonstrating the contribution that Sebald made to the German tradition of queer writing.

"Why do queer bachelors and homosexual desire haunt the works of the German writer W. G. Sebald (1944-2001)? In a series of readings of Sebald''s major texts, from ''After Nature'' to ''Austerlitz'', Helen Finch''s pioneering study shows that alternative masculinities subvert catastrophe in Sebald''s works. From the schizophrenic poet Ernst Herbeck to the alluring shade of Kafka in Venice, the figure of the bachelor offers a form of resistance to the destructive course of history throughout Sebald''s critical and literary writing. Sebald''s poetics of homosexual desire trace a ''line of flight'' away from the patriarchal and repressive order of German society, which, in Sebald''s view, led to the disasters of Nazism. This study shows that the potential for subversion personified by Sebald''s solitary males is essential for understanding his celebrated work, while also demonstrating the contribution that Sebald made to the German tradition of queer writing. Helen Finch is Academic Fellow in German at the University of Leeds."

"Why do queer bachelors and homosexual desire haunt the works of the German writer W. G. Sebald (1944-2001)? In a series of readings of Sebald''s major texts, from ''After Nature'' to ''Austerlitz'', Helen Finch''s pioneering study shows that alternative masculinities subvert catastrophe in Sebald''s works. From the schizophrenic poet Ernst Herbeck to the alluring shade of Kafka in Venice, the figure of the bachelor offers a form of resistance to the destructive course of history throughout Sebald''s critical and literary writing. Sebald''s poetics of homosexual desire trace a ''line of flight'' away from the patriarchal and repressive order of German society, which, in Sebald''s view, led to the disasters of Nazism. This study shows that the potential for subversion personified by Sebald''s solitary males is essential for understanding his celebrated work, while also demonstrating the contribution that Sebald made to the German tradition of queer writing. Helen Finch is Academic Fellow in German at the University of Leeds."

Britain’s traditional crafts have been an important part of the heritage and culture of Britain for centuries but today many of these crafts are practised by dwindling numbers of people. This book explores traditional crafts that are still practised around Britain, some well-known such as dry stone walling and thatching but others are less familiar such as Globemaking, Shinty sticks, Maille and sporran making. Some such as sporran making are associated with a particular region, or vary from region to region, and others such as embroidery have been practised at home. The book also explores the potential for sustainability, the tools and equipment made and used, how many of these crafts were interrelated and how these skills of our ancestors can be passed on to future generations before they are lost. This attractively illustrated book celebrates these traditional crafts that are still practised today and part of our heritage. It will appeal to all those who want to know more about Britain’s history and its magnificent diversity of traditions.

Investigates the connections between German writers H.G. Adler and W.G. Sebald and reveals a new hybrid paradigm of writing about the Holocaust in light of the wider literary-political implications of Holocaust representation since 1945.Since 1945, authors and scholars have intensely debated what form literary fiction about the Holocaust should take. The works of H. G. Adler (1910-1988) and W. G. Sebald (1944-2001), two modernist scholar-poets who settled in England but never met, present new ways of reconceptualizing the nature of witnessing, literary testimony, and the possibility of a "poetics" after Auschwitz. Adler, a Czech Jew who survived Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, was a prolific writer of prose and poetry, but his work remained little known until Sebald, possibly the most celebrated German writer of recent years, cited it in his 2001 work, Austerlitz. Since then, a rediscovery of Adler has been under way. This volume of essays by international experts on Adler and Sebald investigates the connections between the two writers to reveal a new hybrid paradigm of writing about the Holocaust that advances our understanding of the relationship between literature, historiography, and autobiography. In doing so, the volume also reflects on the wider literary-political implications of Holocaust representation, demonstrating the shifting norms in German-language "Holocaust literature."Contributors: Jeremy Adler, Jo Catling, Peter Filkins, Helen Finch, Frank Finlay, Kirstin Gwyer, Katrin Kohl, Michael Krüger, Martin Modlinger, Dora Osborne, Ruth Vogel-Klein, Lynn L. Wolff.Helen Finch is Associate Professor in German at the University of Leeds. Lynn L. Wolff is assistant Professor at Michigan State University.

Shows how Adler, Wander, Hilsenrath, and Klüger intertwine transgressive political criticism with the shadow of trauma, revealing new perspectives on canon formation and exclusion in postwar German literature.How did German-speaking Holocaust survivors pursue literary careers in an often-indifferent postwar society? How did their literary life writings reflect their postwar struggles? This monograph focuses on four authors who bore literary witness to the Shoah - H. G. Adler, Fred Wander, Edgar Hilsenrath, and Ruth Klüger. It analyzes their autofictional, critical, and autobiographical works written between the early 1950s and 2015, which depict their postwar experiences of writing, publishing, and publicizing Holocaust testimony.These case studies shed light on the devastating aftermaths of the Holocaust in different contexts. Adler depicts his attempts to overcome marginalization as a writer in Britain in the 1950s. Wander reflects on his failure to find a home either in postwar Austria or in the GDR. Hilsenrath satirizes his struggles as an emigrant to the US in the 1960s and after returning to Berlin in the 1980s. Finally, in her 2008 memoir, Ruth Klüger follows up her earlier, highly impactful memoir of the concentration camps by narrating the misogyny and antisemitism she experienced in US and German academia. Helen Finch analyzes how these under-researched texts intertwine transgressive political criticism with the shadow of trauma. Drawing on scholarship on Holocaust testimony, transnational memory, and affect theory, her book reveals new perspectives on canon formation and exclusion in postwar German literature.