Sebald's "Vertigo": The Odyssey Without a Homecoming Book Review by Hikaru Myuki

This paper discusses the novel "Vertigo" by the German writer W.G. Sebald. The author argues that the use of seafaring imagery in the "All'Estero" chapter shows that Sebald's narrator's journey across Europe intentionally parallels Odysseus' journey across the Aegean Sea. Unlike Odysseus, however, Sebald's narrator does not achieve a true homecoming, in the sense that on his return home he does not feel a connection that stabilizes himself, and he realizes that he will always feel a perpetual homelessness. The writer discusses the novel's themes of death and dissolution, disconnection with the world and disorientation, and further points out an intertextual connection between "Vertigo" and Dante's Inferno.