Guest of the ilb 2002
Herta Müller is a novelist, lyrical poet and essayist. The work of the Nobel prize laureate in Literature are primarily concerned with the Romanian Ceaucescu dictatorship and the uprooting in exile. She was born in the German speaking Nitzkydorf, District Banat in Romania in 1953. In Timisoara she studied Romanian and German Literature.
After her studies she was employed as a translator in a machine factory. Contacted by intermediaries of the Romanian Secret Service, she strictly refused any collaboration which led to her losing her job in the factory. The Secret Service expected to get informations from her about the "Campaign Group Banat", of which she was a member. During this period, she began writing her first stories which she collected under the title of 'Niederungen'. Nevertheless she had great difficulty getting her work through the censors and so her story volume was only published in 1982 in a much changed version.
The impressions which Herta Müller collected during her childhood in the Romanian province, the observations of village life, the denunciation amongst the village inhabitants, the difficulties of a non-conformist life in the smallest unit of the dictatorial state, the family, are impressions central to her early works and her most important novels.
In 1984, 'Niederungen' was published in Germany in an uncensored version. Awards and invitations to Germany followed. Although Herta Müller hadn't had the permission to leave Romania as yet, travelling became possible for her hereupon. She even achieved an employment as teacher shortly before. After she had criticised severely the Ceaucescu dictatorship in interviews, however, a publication and travelling ban was imposed on her - culminating in death threats by the Secret Service. In 1987, she left Romania. Since then she has lived in Berlin.
The novel 'Reisende auf einem Bein' portrays the difficulties of settling anew in foreign surroundings. Alongside other novels about the dictatorship in Romania ('Herztier' and 'Heute wär ich mir lieber nicht begegnet'), she also wrote a series of political essays and notes on poetological lectures. In 1993, under the title of 'Der Wächter nimmt seinen Kamm. Vom Weggehen und Ausscheren', she published the first collection of lyrical collages, followed by 'Im Haarknoten wohnt eine Dame' in 2000. In the essays of 'Der König verneigt sich und tötet' (2003), she portrays impressively the experiences of her life under an absolute regime. In 2005, her playful collage of poetry 'Die blassen Herren mit den Mokkatassen' was published.
Beside the prizes for her debut (among others the 'aspekte Literaturpreis'), she received many awards, such as the European Literary Prize 'Aristeion', the 'International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award', the 'Kleist-Preis', the 'Kafka-Preis', the 'Carl-Zuckmayer-Medaille' and the Walter-Hasenclever-Preis. 2009 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
(c) international literature festival berlin
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Reisende auf einem Bein
Rotbuch
Berlin, 1989
Barfüssiger Februar
Rotbuch
Berlin, 1990
Eine warme Kartoffel ist ein warmes Bett
Europäische Verlagsanstalt
Hamburg, 1992
Der Fuchs war damals schon der Jäger
Rowohlt
Reinbek, 1992
Herztier
Rowohlt
Reinbek, 1994
Hunger und Seide
Rowohlt
Reinbek, 1995
Drückender Tango
Rowohlt
Reinbek, 1996
Heute wär ich mir lieber nicht begegnet
Rowohlt
Reinbek, 1997
Der fremde Blick oder Das Leben ist ein Furz in der Laterne
Wallstein
Göttingen, 1999
Im Haarknoten wohnt eine Dame
Rowohlt
Reinbek, 2000
Der König verneigt sich und tötet
Hanser
München, 2003
Die blassen Herren mit den Mokkatassen
Hanser
München, 2005
Atemschaukel
Hanser
München, 2009
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