Borgesian and Shakespearean Allusions in Die Ringe des Saturn by W. G. Sebald

The distinct elements of the Die Ringe des Saturn 1 by W. G. Sebald – fragments of history, memory, (auto)biography – are various and discrete, although they hang together as a coherent entirety. Yet there still remains space in between these elements, created by Sebald’s allusions to other works of literature, where the themes of the novel may be addressed. The title of Sebald’s novel itself not only reflects the author’s novelistic praxis of collecting disparate, mysterious elements and arranging them as a harmonious whole, but also echoes the novel’s themes of annihilation and reconciliation. Gareth Howell-Jones has gone so far as to posit that the novel’s title acts as a metaphor for the human condition, claiming that “as Saturn is encircled by rings made up of the fragments of a former moon, so we revolve surrounded by the shards of a lost and broken-up world, ‘our history which is but a long account of calamities’”.2 In ­quoting from the English translation of Die Ringe des Saturn itself, Howell-Jones reminds us of Sebald’s writing style, which intends “to evoke, to suggest, to make references that can lead in several directions or exist on several levels,”3 much like the very title of the novel.