Conclusion

Throughout this itinerary, focused on the investigation of the recovery of memory as ash, it was sought, in the same way as was initially said about the work of criticism, “recognizing in the ashes the flame of life”194 . In accordance with the observation of the recurrent patterns of Sebald's work – or, of the ghosts of repetition, as the author refers it –, it was possible to establish three points of convergence: Space, Image and Literature. In this sense, the itinerary sought to unfold, in each chapter, the nuances of the rescue carried out by Sebald.

Under this motto, and having The Rings of Saturn as a framework, the examination of each category mentioned made it evident that the rescue work of the German writer is, to a large extent, explicit. Although Sebald perpetuates a kind of mourning constellation in his narratives - especially, in the compendium that constitutes The Rings of Saturn –, there is an attempt, like the observations about Thomas Browne, to continuously record the residues, with the characteristic intention of retention. If for Genet, as highlighted in the introduction, the work of art is for the dead - but of the dead who were never alive or who “were alive enough for us to forget them”195 –, Sebald points out that the rescue can either be veiled, or it can be explicit.

In this perspective, there is a purpose for the emergence of memory, based on the writer's own mediation sources. In the case of Space, the main understanding is that this art of memory experienced by Sebald understands the recollection spatially196 . At the same time, the use of pilgrimage enables the notion of spatial practice – intrinsically linked to literary practice, as suggested in all of Sebald's

194 Once again, Maria Filomena Molder through Walter Benjamin: “This is the alchemical power that Benjamin attributes to the critic: recognizing in the ashes the flame of life.” (MOLDER, 2016, page 253, own highlights and translation) 195 “But these dead people I speak of were never alive. Or else I forgot them. They were alive enough for us to remember them, since their life had the function of making them cross that quiet margin from where they wait for a sign – coming from here – and recognize it.” (GENET, 2000, page 15, own translation) 196 Confirming the thought of Giuliana Bruno (2018, page 221): “The art of memory understood recollection spatially.”

work – and the remembrance. Therefore, the choice of the narrator as a pilgrim becomes justified. In a broad sense, the author appeals to the spatial instance of memory functioning and compares the pilgrimage to life. Moreover, in the manner of what is rescued via Chateaubriand: the experience of walking is inscribed in the body of the writer – who, “still in life already thinks himself in the tomb that his memories represent”197 .

The statement extracted from Chateaubriand's diary, one of the writers addressed throughout the narrative, confirms the notion of memory as ash exercised by Sebald. By continuing to explore the author's sources of mediation, the second chapter, referring to the Image, proves the effort to show what is obscure in the work of art – something that is translated, more strongly, by the search for its residual, peripheral aspect. With effect, the writer develops an art criticism that, in search of the notion of ambiguity and versatility of the work, refers to the articulation with the thought of Maria Filomena Molder, where echoes the Deleuzian thought: “depth is obtained by diving into the surface”198 .

While the proximity of life to death is the very theme of the work of art – and, therefore, a source of access to ash –, Sebald understands it as the addiction to photography. In this direction, the author is compatible with Kafka's view of the progressive annulment – or approach of death – denounced by the photographic record. At the same time, Sebald's procedure indicates that getting used to the image of death199 is twofold: now with astonishment – or with terror – and now with the fight against forgetfulness. Regarding the perspective of The Rings of Saturn, the writer bets on the retention burden of photography, on an even broader scale in terms of destruction and catastrophe. When anchoring the pilgrimage path, it is the photographs that, in fact, denote the residue - and that are, properly, a manifestation of ash.

197 Again, Sebald’s record according to Chateaubriand’s diary: “In writing, he [the writer] becomes the exemplary martyr of the destiny that providence reserves for us, and, still in life, he already thinks himself in the grave that his memories represent.” (SEBALD, 2010, page 254, own highlights and translation) 198 MOLDER, Maria Filomena – Um Soluço Ardente. In Rebuçados Venezianos. 199 Again a reference to the expression used by Maria Filomena Molder.

Finally, there is the mediation of Literature, persistent evidence in the fight against the art of forgetting200 . In spite of the notion of the art of memory explained earlier, it is the attraction of amnesia201 that justifies the author's persistence. Sebald seeks – from literary references to the records of the memories of the dead – the remains of oblivion, giving priority to literature as a tool for accessing the vestiges. It is the experience of language that encompasses the concrete experience of the unspeakable202 , in the multiple facets explored by Sebald. Here, the analysis of the writer's extensive use of references results in an affinity with Pascal Quignard's point: “To speak dumb, to speak muted, to peek at the missing word, to read, to write: it is the same thing”203 .

In relation to memoir books, extensively addressed by Sebald, it is important to register the perception of elective affinities204 and the obsessive concern of the writer with the past, whose motto guides his writing process. In order to undertake a cataloging of the ash, Sebald uses the “evocation of things long since forgotten” – especially, the records of dead writers. It is through this understanding that the desire to suspend time is made possible - and that, strictly speaking, the permanence of ash is made possible.

The redemption experience brought up by Sebald's work is the result of the continuous rescue work. However, there is no real possibility of salvation: amid the destruction called for, the author gives visibility – and suspension – to the residue. Like the work of art, Sebald's writing achieves vital persistence205 by rescuing the ashes – namely, “life's most noble sarcophagus”206 . Even so, again as Maria Filomena Molder tells us, it is not able to save the night – understood

200 Referring again to the term extracted from Sebald’s text on the written work of Peter Weiss. 201 Still on Weiss’ writing, in correspondence with Sebald’s procedure, as previously cited in a footnote. 202 Term designated by the writer Pascal Quignard, as previously mentioned. 203 QUIGNARD, Pascal – O nome na ponta da língua. 204 As has been said, this is the essential point of connection [or of correspondence] between Sebald and the writers of his admiration. 205 MOLDER, Maria Filomena – Um Soluço Ardente. In Rebuçados Venezianos. 206 Ibid., page 252.

as a threat, as a part of the darkness of life – it only illuminates it207. With regards to what appears continuously in his work, Sebald was aware of this process:

In America, says Thomas Browne in his treatise on funerary urns, hunters are on their feet when the Persians have just drifted into the deepest sleep. The night shadows are pulled over the earth like the tail of a cloak, and like almost everything, from one meridian to another, lies down after sunset, he continues, it would be possible, following the setting sun, to see in the globe inhabited by us only bodies extended, row after row, as if mowed by Saturn's sickle - a cemetery of infinite extension for a humanity that succumbs to prostration. (SEBALD, 2010, page 86, own translation)

207 In agreement with Maria Filomena Molder’s argument from Walter Benjamin: “The night that returns resembles a threat, the night that is an imposition of life, from the dark part of life, part that Benjamin considers to never know redemption […] But with the night the stars come back, for him another name for the works of art, which do not save the night […], only illuminate it.” (MOLDER, 2017, page 74, own highlights and translation)