Perennial Empires: Postcolonial, Transnational, and Literary Pers ...

ways British imperial history is frequently glorified in the nation’s collective consciousness. Thus, in The Rings of Saturn, Sebald occupies multiple vantage points: he is simultaneously foreigner and local, tourist and resident—affording a vision that is intimately engaged yet critically detached. These particular perspectives are important in reminding readers that the occluded imperial histories Sebald reveals in rural Suffolk remain inconspicuous not only to most people who live in Britain but also to the thousands of tourists who come seeking an image of “authentic” England in the countryside. A sense of ironic nostalgia, therefore, can provide a more conscious perspective from which to view the superficial trappings of the frequently commodified displays of imperial history in rural England.

In this essay, I apply the concept of ironic nostalgia to Sebald’s depiction of Somerleyton manor, a manor estate in Suffolk that he visited along his travels. Country estates and manor homes serve as important metonymies for Englishness, and I suggest that the enduring allure and pleasure of nostalgia paradoxically contribute to the elision of broader histories of imperial violence. Sebald’s presentation of the materiality of the manor home’s past not only suggests why the manor home continues to inspire imperial nostalgia but also offers a more culturally and historically inclusive way in which to understand the manor home. Ironic nostalgia is also a concept that attempts to redraw the lines of the exclusive national and racial affiliations traditionally associated with rural England and offers England’s minority communities a more historically and culturally inflected lens through which to view spaces that have traditionally dismissed their historical contribution and discouraged their participation.

A close reading of the Somerleyton manor chapter in The Rings of Saturn, demonstrates that despite being viewed as cherished sites of national heritage and social tradition, English country homes like Somerleyton have histories that are predicated on the erasure of a complex matrix of sociopolitical imperial connections. Sebald suggests that these country manors serve as mausoleums for the alternatives pasts that demand recuperation. Although the Edwardian-Victorian period of the country