The implicit starting point for Sebald’s literary essays is the melancholy conviction that, during the course of the twentieth century, the history of mankind finally showed itself to be on a downward path and that, therefore, the two disastrous world wars were simply preludes to a total and imminent catastrophe, and that, additionally, a creeping process of exploitation is perpetually destroying the natural basis of our lives. He cites Franz Kafka as someone who shared this dark sense of history, reading those of his stories which deal centrally with evolution as a way of acquiring a better understanding of the destabilising factors of human history:

“The hypotheses which Kafka explores in his story of transformation are of crucial concern at a time like the present, when humankind seems poised on the verge of a far-reaching mutation. It is strange how little critical attention has thus far been paid to this, despite the fact that it is precisely the epistemological dimension of anticipating a radically altered human species which most persistently preoccupied Kafka.”

Uwe Schütte. Against Germanistik: WG Sebald’s Critical Essays. (2011) trans. Richard Sheppard, Jo Catling [In the second paragraph Schütte quotes Sebald.]