At the time of Sebald’s death in December 2001, a cult of all things “Sebaldian” was already emerging among his Anglo-American readership in particular. Since then, his consecration has reached almost hagiographic heights. His reticence in interviews and his reluctance to participate in the promotional circus of literary publishing amplified his posthumous apotheosis. The timing of his death after the release of the English translation of Austerlitz led to his rise beyond art and academia to cult author status. To many readers and even non-readers of his work, Sebald constituted a messianic exemplum of the “good German” and the “prime speaker of the Holocaust”, as well as a model proponent of the nature writing genre. This led to the creation of touristic walking routes that followed in the footsteps of his novels’ narrators, as well as social media reading groups, engendering further abstractions and misconceptions. Parodic articles emulating his style and overblown tributes only fuelled the cult’s fire. The suddenness of Sebald’s rise from obscurity to international stardom late in life, along with his unexpected demise merely half a decade later, ensure his cult status lives on.

The chapter evaluates the question ‘why silent?’ in research and reconceptualises how such inquiry should be contextualised to make the investigation more meaningful and freer from prejudice. To do so, the discussion presents a range of critical scenarios where silence fails to function productively, elaborates how problems occur in context and suggests ways of coping with each of those problems. The author argues that silence is an open construct whose meaning cannot be universally conclusive. The ‘why silent?’ inquiry, which demands a once-and-for-all answer, may not be useful as it risks diminishing the dynamic of a highly complex and constantly changing experience. A student who is quiet in one class may not be quiet in another class. To capture this person as an inherently shy learner might be misleading because such a trait may vanish when the student is reconditioned by a new classroom setting. This means that what researchers have tried so hard to seize has now become non-existent. Silence is a chameleon whose behaviour constantly responds to its surroundings rather than acting independently.