ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF DESTRUCTION: ESOTERICISM AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL PESSIMISM IN W.G. SEBALD’S THE RINGS OF SATURN
Roxana Elena Doncu
The International Conference Synergies in Communication November 9, 2026 DOI: 10.24818/sic/2024/06.07 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that Sebald's The Rings of Saturn deconstructs the master narrative of scientific rationalism by juxtaposing modern science's destructive effects with the esoteric world evoked through Thomas Browne, and contends that the novel posits epistemological pessimism as the appropriate attitude of the intellectual. |
Abstract
The story of a pilgrimage on the coastal side of East Anglia, The Rings of Saturn offers the reader a spiritual travelogue through the convoluted history of our progress towards modernity. W.G. Sebald engages critically with issues of art, natural history, scientific progress, war and colonialism. Throughout the novel, the author discusses Thomas Browne (an English philosopher and physician from the 17th century), Rembrandt’s painting The Anatomy Lesson, the natural history of the herring and sericulture together with civil wars and concentration camps. His evocation of Browne plunges the reader into a world which is no longer familiar to contemporary man, dominated by a type of knowledge we now call esoteric, aiming to uncover the destructive side-effects and the natural catastrophes wrought by an over-rationalist Science that separates the human being from its environment and invites him to control and exploit Nature. By juxtaposing the effects of modern science and the dark (occult world) of esotericism, Sebald deconstructs the master narrative of scientific rationalism and posits epistemological pessimism as the just attitude of the intellectual.