DOCSLIB.ORG

Parishodh Journal Volume IX, Issue III, March/2020 ISSN NO:2347-6648

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Parishodh Journal Volume IX, Issue III, March/2020 ISSN NO:2347-6648 Parishodh Journal ISSN NO:2347-6648 SUBJUGATION OF GENDERLESS OBJECTS IN HERTA MULLER’S THE HUNGER ANGEL ANITA.P Ph.d. Scholar P.G. & Research Department of English St.Joseph’s College (A), Affiliated to Bharathidasan University Tiruchirappalli & Dr. S. Papu Benjamin Elango Research Supervisor & Guide Formerly Associate Professor & Head P.G. & Research Department of English St. Joseph’s College (A), Affiliated to Bharathidasan University Tiruchirappalli. ABSTRACT: This paper sets out to explore the sufferings and struggles of men and women who were deported to the forced labor camp in Ukraine. After World War II, the Soviet Union forced the ethnic Germans in Romania to work in their Gulags to reconstruct their devastated country. Herta Muller’s The Hunger Angelpicturizes the image of the labor camp where workers were treated as Genderless Objects without any concern. Herta Muller depicted how hunger haunted every individual in the camp even after the internees’ deportation. The oppression, threat, and homelessness played a vital role throughout their Volume IX, Issue III, March/2020 Page No:2296 Parishodh Journal ISSN NO:2347-6648 lives. Instead of being an external force that tortures Leo Auberg, the Hunger Angel is a creature coming from within. Atemschaukel is packed with occasional flashbacks and opens with Aubergs’ summon and packing for the Soviet forced labor camp. The novel then travels through Aubergs’ experiences in the camp and ends with return and a few episodes from his present-day life. Keywords: Genderless Objects, struggles, sufferings, labor camp, deportation, Hunger Angel Herta Muller was a Romanian born German author. She was born on 17th August 1953. Muller depicts the life of the ethnic German minority and the brutalities they experience under the repressive Nicoloae Ceausescu’s regime. Some of her notable contributions to the world of fiction are The Passport, The Appointment, The Hunger Angel, Travelling on one Leg, and The Land of Green Plums. She was awarded the Nobel prize in literature by the Swedish Academy on 8th October 2009, describing her as woman, “who with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose depicts the landscape of the dispossessed.” The Hunger Angel is derived from the compound word Hungerengel to describe the omnipresence of the hunger that suppressed the prisoners in the Gulag. The name Atemschaukel in German is known as Breathswing or Breathswinging. This novel was nominated for the German Book Prize in 2009, and the English translation by Philip Boehm was nominated for the Best Translated Book Award in 2013 and won the Oxford Weinfeld Translation Prize in 2013. Volume IX, Issue III, March/2020 Page No:2297 Parishodh Journal ISSN NO:2347-6648 The Hunger Angel follows the life of a young boy who is deported to a forced-labor at the age of 17. Herta Muller, in all her works, depicts the experiences of her own life, whereas The Hunger Angel is an exceptional novel. It narrates the sufferings and trauma experienced by the previous generation. Thousands of the internees of the forced labor camp died. One among them was Muller’s mother’s friend, after whom she was named Herta Muller. Muller had conversations with the farmers of her village and with the poet Oskar Leo Pastior to draw their experiences in the camp. Reminiscences of Oskar Pastior and other internees were published as Atemschaukel in 2009. Chronologically these deportations of ethnic Germans from Romania to the Soviet Union took place from 10 Feb 1945. Able-bodied men aged from 17 to 45 and women aged 18 to 35 were deported to the camp. After the Second World War, the Stalin regime summoned the German laborers for the reconstruction of the areas of the Soviet Union destroyed by the War. Herta Muller depicts the atrocities and struggles of the ‘Genderless Objects’ in the camp. Muller conveyed the incidents in an exquisite perfection that creates a steadfast effect on the readers. Muller merely screams the sufferings and struggles of internees. Muller’s ‘Genderless Objects’ refers to the men and women who were forced to work in the camp. Muller’s ‘Genderless Objects’ refers to the men and women who were forced to work in the camp. The novel ends with Leo’s return to home and few episodes from his present life. Oskar Leo Pastior was born in 1927 in the German speaking Romania. He was subjected to humiliations of the forced labor camp. So Muller planned to write the novel in collaboration with Pastior extracting his experiences. Volume IX, Issue III, March/2020 Page No:2298 Parishodh Journal ISSN NO:2347-6648 The action of the novel centers on the life of Leo Auberg the Protagonist. The novel opens with the Leo’s arrest and deportation to the camp. The novel is divided into sixty four chapters. It is narrated in first person. The plot of the novel is set in Ukraine. Mostly all the novels of Muller are based on the impact of the totalitarian regime on people. The psychological trauma in The Hunger Angel played a dominant role throughout the novel. Muller’s narration gives a vivid description of the camp. The protagonist is unveiled as a homo sexual personality which was considered a punishable crime in Romania and in the camps. Leo considered the deportation as an escape from his own home town where every stone had eyes to watch him. Everlasting fear is reflected through his utterances. “Before, during and after my time in the camp for 25 years I lived in fear”. Leo Auberg receives a letter from his parents when TurPrikulitsch summoned Leo to receive his letter, Leo found a picture of Stalin pasted on the door watching all his activities. The letter conveys news about the new born baby which Leo considered to replace him in his house. He felt alienated when he noticed that not even a single line was written to inquire about him. He managed his homesickness to fit in his existence. My parents had a baby because they’ve give upon me.(HA 200) As far as I am concerned you can die where you, are we’ll have more room at home. (HA 200) Volume IX, Issue III, March/2020 Page No:2299 Parishodh Journal ISSN NO:2347-6648 These words of his mother alienated him from his own family. Throughout the novel Muller describes the pain of the internees in the frozen camp. She depicts the worst weather condition where the people freeze to statue. The soldier’s rifle was shaking but he stayed frozen, I thought the man is made of wood and rifle of flesh. (HA 216) Many of the internees were picked up to forced labor. They deployed men and women who were with German names were deployed. Leo worked from before sunrise to after sunset shoveling coal, hauling concrete and brick. The Russian Camp Commandant issues commands to work a lot but they were underfed. ” I wanted to eat slowly because I wanted to have more of the soup longer. But my hunger sat like a dog in front if the plate and ate.” They also took brutal actions of arresting people below the age limits and even the lunatic people just because someone who registered is not suitable for work. One such character is Kati Sentry who did not understand about rationed food, or a command or a punishment. ...you can put any human being to the drill… …but you can’t bend a feeble mind to your will.(HA93) In the camp even the husbands, steals the wife’s food and starves her to death. Paul Gaust steals HiedrunGast soup to quench his hungry and leads her to death. Each and every action of daily life of the internees is instructed to them only by orders. Stealing and begging became part and parcel of their daily lives. The hunger angel attacks the prisoners and grows insatiably to tame them. The hunger angel tortures all the organs of the body and Volume IX, Issue III, March/2020 Page No:2300 Parishodh Journal ISSN NO:2347-6648 causes pain in the brain. People who is killing themselves and sees other people dying and yet who does not give up hope of living will get out of the Ukraine hell. Even after the deportation the prisoners starve to eat. “For Sixty years ever since I come back from the camp I have been eating against starvation.(18).Surviving on bread and cabbage soup the internees are maddened bystarvation. Leo says there are no adequate words for the suffering caused by hunger. Labour Camp is a place where the hunger angel makes skin and bones The omnipresence of the lice like the hunger angel tortures them a lot. After all these humiliations, it’s really a mystery that their bodies survive in this world. Herta Muller completes her novel with Leo Aubergs’ life in his own home town after his return from the camp. Thus Herta Muller departs from narrating her own experiences, depicts the cruelty and violence on the deportees. Acceptably she gave an authentic description of how human beings were treated as “Genderless Objects” irrespective of their inabilities. Works Cited .The Hunger Angel. Trans. Philip Boehm. New York: Metropolitan Books,2012. People's Pain: Narratives of Trauma and the Question of Ethics. New York, NY: Bannasch, Bettina. "Zero-A Gaping Mouth: The Discourse of the Camps in HertaMüller'sAtemschaukelBetween Literary Theory and Political Philosophy."Other Peter Lang, 2011. 115-144. Volume IX, Issue III, March/2020 Page No:2301 Parishodh Journal ISSN NO:2347-6648 Haines, Brigid. "HertaMüller: Outline Biography."HertaMüller. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1998.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Twórczość Herty Müller W Polskim Życiu Literackim 133
    PRACE NAUKOWE Akademii im. Jana Długosza w Częstochowie Studia Neofilologiczne 2015, z. XI, 131 –146 http://dx.doi.org/10.16926/sn.2015.11.08 Agnieszka RESZKA Akademia im. Jana Długosza w Częstochow ie TWÓRCZOŚĆ HERTY MÜLLER W POLSKIM ŻYCIU L ITERACKIM Abstract Herta Müller’s Work in Polis h Literary Life The article focuses on the problem of the reception and popularization of Herta Müller’s work in P o- land compared with these in Germany. Additionally, attention is paid to the worldwide interest given to Müller’s literary output. The develop ment of the text makes use of critical studies, information fe- atured on the Internet, and data made available by various cultural institutions. The analysis highlights both the political and cultural developments which have influenced Müller’s reception and the popula- rity of her works. Keywords: Herta Müller, reception, life-writing literature, Nobel Prize, translation. Wstęp Twórczość Herty Müller, ze względu na siłę oddziaływania, nabrała nowego zna- czenia po otrzym aniu przez pisarkę literackiej N agrody Nobla w 2009 roku. Wyda- rzenie to wpłynęło na wzrost zainteresowania jej utworami nie tylko w Eur opie, ale także w Azji. Wielu krytyków literackich zwraca uwagę na szczególną pop ularność prozy Herty Müller w państwach byłego bloku wschodniego, a zwłaszcza w Pol- sce 1. Powodem, często podkreślan ym, jest krytyczny stosunek wobec nazistowskich Niemiec oraz podobne doświadczenia historyczne narodu polskiego i rumuńskiego (system totalitarnej władzy w okresie rządów komunistyc znych) 2. 1 Por. W. Sievers, Eastward Bound: Herta Müller’s I nternational Reception , [w:] Herta Müller , red. B. Ha- ines, L.
    [Show full text]
  • Studia Neofilologiczne Xi
    STUDIA NEOFILOLOGICZNE XI PRACE NAUKOWE Akademii im. Jana Długosza w Częstochowie STUDIA NEOFILOLOGICZNE XI WSPÓŁCZESNA RECEPCJA LITERATURY NIEMIECKOJĘZYCZNEJ XX I XXI WIEKU pod redakcją JOANNY ŁAWNIKOWSKIEJ-KOPER, ANNY MAJKIEWICZ i ANNY SZYNDLER Częstochowa 2015 Lista Recenzentów prof. dr hab. Leszek BEREZOWSKI, prof. dr hab. Łukasz BOGUCKI, prof. dr hab. Ewa BORKOWSKA, dr hab. Bożena CETNAROWSKA, prof. dr hab. Katarzyna GRZYWKA, prof. dr hab. Norbert HONSZA, prof. dr hab. Lech KOLAGO, prof. dr hab. Aleksander KOZŁOWSKI, prof. dr hab. Wiesław KRAJKA, prof. dr hab. Kazimiera MYCZKO, dr hab. Jacek MYDLA, prof. dr Inge POHL, prof. dr hab. Stanisław PRĘDOTA, dr Dieter STOLZ, prof. dr hab. Irena ŚWIATŁOWSKA-PRĘDOTA, prof. dr hab. Andrzej WICHER Redaktor naczelny Przemysław SZNURKOWSKI Rada Naukowa Jan PAPIÓR, Paweł PŁUSA, Dieter STOLZ, Przemysław SZNURKOWSKI, Anna MAJKIEWICZ, Piotr MAMET, Bogusław BIERWIACZONEK, Anna SZYNDLER Sekretarz redakcji Grzegorz GWÓŹDŹ Redaktor naczelny wydawnictwa Andrzej MISZCZAK Korekta Dariusz JAWORSKI Redakcja techniczna Piotr GOSPODAREK Projekt okładki Damian RUDZIŃSKI © Copyright by Akademia im. Jana Długosza w Częstochowie Częstochowa 2015 adres strony internetowej pisma: www.ifo.ajd.czest.pl/studianeo/ e-mail: [email protected] Pierwotną wersją periodyku jest publikacja papierowa PISMO RECENZOWANE Z LISTY „B” MNiSW ISSN 1897-4244 Wydawnictwo im. Stanisława Podobińskiego Akademii im. Jana Długosza w Częstochowie 42-200 Częstochowa, ul. Waszyngtona 4/8 tel. (34) 378-43-29, faks (34) 378-43-19 www.ajd.czest.pl e-mail: [email protected] SPIS TREŚCI WSTĘP ....................................................................................................................................... 7 AUSTRIA Markus EBERHARTER Polska recepcja twórczości Josepha Rotha. Trzy przekłady noweli Die Büste des Kaisers ............................................................................................................ 13 Agnieszka JEZIERSKA Dyżurna feministka. Dlaczego i jak polskie pisarki czytają Elfriede Jelinek ...........
    [Show full text]
  • The Hunger Angel: a Novel Freed
    FREE THE HUNGER ANGEL: A NOVEL PDF Herta MГјller,Philip Boehm | 304 pages | 01 Aug 2013 | Portobello | 9781846272783 | English | London, United Kingdom The Hunger Angel - Wikipedia Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. The Hunger Angel: A Novel rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Philip Boehm Translator. It was an icy morning in January when the patrol came for seventeen-year-old Leo Auberg to deport him to a camp in the Soviet Union. Leo would spend the next five years in a coke processing plant, shoveling coal, lugging bricks, mixing mortar, and battling the relentless calculus of hunger that governed the labor colony: one shovel load of coal is worth one gram of br It was an icy morning in January when The Hunger Angel: A Novel patrol came for seventeen-year-old Leo Auberg to deport him to a camp in the Soviet Union. Leo would spend the next five years in The Hunger Angel: A Novel coke processing plant, shoveling coal, lugging bricks, mixing mortar, and battling the relentless calculus of hunger that governed the labor colony: one shovel load of coal is worth one gram of bread. She has given Leo the language to express the inexpressible, as hunger sharpens his senses into an acuity that is both hallucinatory and profound. In scene after disorienting scene, the most ordinary objects accrue tender poignancy as they acquire new purpose—a gramophone box serves as a suitcase, a handkerchief becomes a talisman, an enormous piece of casing pipe functions as a lovers' trysting place.
    [Show full text]
  • JPR Journal of Perpetrator Research
    JOURNAL OF PERPETRATOR RESEARCH JPVol. 3, No.R 1 (2020) ISSN 2514-7897 The Journal of Perpetrator Research (JPR) is an inter-disciplinary, peer-reviewed, open access Editors journal committed to promoting the scholarly Dr Susanne C. Knittel (Utrecht University) study of perpetrators of mass killings, political Dr Emiliano Perra (University of Winchester) violence, and genocide. Dr Uğur Ümit Üngör (Utrecht University) The journal fosters scholarly discussions about perpetrators and perpetratorship across Advisory Board the broader continuum of political violence. Dr Stephanie Bird (UCL) JPR does not confine its attention to any Dr Tomislav Dulic (Uppsala University) particular region or period. Instead, its mission Prof. Mary Fulbrook (UCL) is to provide a forum for analysis of perpetrators Prof. Alexander L. Hinton (Rutgers University) of genocide, mass killing and political violence Prof. A. Dirk Moses (University of Sydney) via research taking place within the fields of Prof. Alette Smeulers (University of Tilburg) history, criminology, law, forensics, cultural Prof. Sue Vice (University of Sheffield) studies, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, Prof. James Waller (Keene State College) memory studies, psychology, politics, litera- ture, film studies and education. In providing Copyeditor this interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary Sofía Forchieri (Utrecht University) space the journal moves academic research on this topic beyond, and between, disciplinary Layout & Typesetting boundaries to provide a forum in which robust Sofía Forchieri (Utrecht University) and interrogative research and cross-curricular Dr Kári Driscoll (Utrecht University) discourse can stimulate lively intellectual en- gagement with perpetrators. Cover Design JPR thus not only addresses issues related Tjebbe van Tijen (Imaginary Museum Projects) to perpetrators in the past but also responds to present challenges.
    [Show full text]
  • The German Minority in Romania
    Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2015 The German Minority in Romania Edited by: Ursprung, Daniel ; Scheide, Carmen ; Tagangaeva, Maria Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-133324 Edited Scientific Work Published Version The following work is licensed under a Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License. Originally published at: The German Minority in Romania. Edited by: Ursprung, Daniel; Scheide, Carmen; Tagangaeva, Maria (2015). St.Gallen: Universitaet St. Gallen * Center fuer Governance und Kultur in Europa. 19-20 / 2015 The German Minority in Romania Guest editor Daniel Ursprung (Zürich) Romanian Germans Elisabeth and Johann Weber during their deportation in the Soviet Union. Certificate of discharge for the former detainee Elisabeth Weber according to which she was released in Brandenburg on 11 december 1946. Photos - Günter Klein’s private archive. Online Open Access Journal of the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe University of St. Gallen URL: www.gce.unisg.ch, www.euxeinos.ch ISSN 2296-0708 Center for Governance and Last Update 28 December 2015 LANDIS & GYR Culture in Europe STIFTUNG University of St.Gallen Table of Contents The German Minority in Romania 3 Editorial by Daniel Ursprung The German Minority in Romania: a Historical Overview 7 by Daniel Ursprung Andreas Schmidt and the German Ethnic Group
    [Show full text]
  • Herta Müller-Handbuch, DOI 10.1007/978-3-476-05401-2, © Springer-Verlag Gmbh Deutschland, 2017 Zeittafel
    VII Anhang N. Otto Eke (Hrsg.), Herta Müller-Handbuch, DOI 10.1007/978-3-476-05401-2, © Springer-Verlag GmbH Deutschland, 2017 Zeittafel 17.8.1953 geboren in Nitzkydorf (rum. Niţchidorf)/ Eine Erzählung erscheint im Westberliner Rotbuch Rumänien. Verlag. 1960–1968 Besuch der Dorfschule in Nitzkydorf. 1987 Am 27. Februar verlassen Herta Müller und 1968–1973 Besuch des Lyzeums Nr. 10 und des Ni- Richard Wagner Rumänien. Barfüßiger Februar kolaus Lenau Gymnasiums in Temeswar; 1969 er- erscheint im Westberliner Rotbuch Verlag. Ricar- scheint erstmals ein Zeitungsbeitrag von Herta da-Huch-Preis. Herta Müller lässt sich in Berlin Müller, dem bis 1985, mit einer Unterbrechung nieder, wo sie von nun an mit kurzen Unterbre- zwischen 1976 und 1978, Gedichte, dann Prosatex- chungen in den Anfangsjahren (Hamburg, Bre- te folgen. merhaven, Rom) lebt. 1973–1976 Studium der Germanistik und Rumä- 1989 Reisende auf einem Bein erscheint im Rotbuch nistik in Temeswar an der »Universitatea de Vest Verlag. Im Wintersemester din Timişoara«. Während des Studiums findet sie 1989/90 Poetik-Dozentur an der Universität Pader- Anschluss an einen Kreis junger Autoren, ins- born. Henning-Kaufmann-Preis; Marie-Luise- besondere der sogenannten »Aktionsgruppe Fleißer-Preis; Deutscher Sprachpreis. Banat«. 1990 Roswitha-Gedenkmedaille der Stadt Bad Gan- 22.3.1977 – 17.7.1980 »Translator stagiare« in der dersheim. »Uzina constr. de masini Tehnometal Timişoara« 1991 Der Teufel sitzt im Spiegel. Wie Wahrnehmung – Entlassung aufgrund der Weigerung, mit der Se- sich erfindet [Paderborner Poetik-Vorlesung]. Ber- curitate zusammenzuarbeiten. lin: Rotbuch Verlag. Literaturpreis Kranich mit 1980–1985 Immer wieder unterbrochene Tätigkei- dem Stein; Herta Müller erhält ein einjähriges Sti- ten als Hilfslehrerin in Schulen; dazwischen und pendium der Villa Massimo in Rom.
    [Show full text]
  • Heimat As Schein: Debunking the German Myth of Heimat in Herta Müller’S Narratives
    Heimat as Schein: Debunking the German Myth of Heimat in Herta Müller’s Narratives Michel Mallet Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures - German Studies McGill University, Montreal, Canada March 2014 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ©Michel Mallet, 2014 Mallet 2 Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ 3 Résumé ......................................................................................................................................... 4 Acknowledgment ....................................................................................................................... 5 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 6 I. Herta Müller’s Disdain for the German Concept of Heimat ........................................... 6 II. Der Schein trügt: On the German Myth of Heimat ....................................................... 12 III. Heimat as Schein in Müller’s Essays and Novels ....................................................... 21 IV. Structure and Methodology ............................................................................................ 26 Chapter 1: Der Schein Trügt: Dorfheimat and Staatsheimat as Anti-Idylle .............. 32 1.1 Dorfheimat as Anti-Idylle in Niederungen ...................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Newsletter of the Post-Socialist and Comparative Memory Studies Working Group
    ISSUE 3 March 2021 NEWSLETTER NEWSLETTER OF THE POST-SOCIALIST and COMPARATIVE MEMORY STUDIES WORKING GROUP NEWSLETTER OF THE POST-SOCIALIST AND COMPARATIVE MEMORY STUDIES WORKING GROUP Issue 3, March 2021 POSOCOMES NEWSLETTER FROM THE EDITORS. 3 POSOCOMES 2020 CONFERENCE REPORT ........................... 5 TO READ AND WATCH: ROMANIA AND MOLDOVA IN FICTION AND CINEMA ...................................... 27 MSA CONFERENCE 2021 .......................................... 37 POSOCOMES RESEARCHERS ...................................... 42 EXHIBITIONS. 46 RESEARCH PROJECTS AND GROUPS ............................... 61 CALLS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS. 67 NEW PUBLICATIONS ............................................. 80 FROM THE EDITORS Dear readers, Welcome to the third PoSoCoMeS newsletter, and the first one since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is, therefore, also an occasion for us to reflect on the past year in the life of our working group and its members. However difficult the year has been, this has also been the time when PoSoCoMeS organized and held its first conference which included over 30 panels and 9 keynote events, and gathered 146 participants from 35 different countries. Little did we know when we were drawing up the program in early 2020 that this conference would have to take place on- line. The success of the conference (judging by the number of participants and attendees as well as the positive feedback the organizers received at the end) testified to the strength and diversity of the working group as well as its commitment to fostering the field of postsocialist memory studies. In this newsletter, we are looking back at the PoSoCoMes confer- ence and forward to the MSA annual meeting in July 2021 as well as to new activities and projects by group members.
    [Show full text]
  • Herta Muller Face to Face with the Tragic of the Trivial Present and a ‘’Nobel’’ Prize for the ‘’Craddle of Breathing’’
    432 Iulian Boldea (Coord.) Globalization and National Identity. Studies on the Strategies of Intercultural Dialogue LITERATURE SECTION HERTA MULLER FACE TO FACE WITH THE TRAGIC OF THE TRIVIAL PRESENT AND A ‘’NOBEL’’ PRIZE FOR THE ‘’CRADDLE OF BREATHING’’ Ion Popescu-Bradiceni Assist. Prof., PhD, ”Constantin Brâncuși” University of Tîrgu-Jiu Abstract: This applied study is dedicated to a great European writer, originally from Romania, Herta Muller. I have undergone this commentary, in a double registry (about poetry: In the bun there lives a dame and prose: The Cradle of respiration), because in Gheorghiu Dej and Ceausescuřs Romania, she was ostracized, humiliated, marginalized, banned. Not belonging to the Romanian diaspora, Herta Muller integrated in German contemporary literature. She got the Nobel prize for the merit to have denounced the horrors of totalitarian communism but, first and foremost, for her extraordinary poetic openness towards the cutting edge trends of the XX century, encapsulating in them the temptation of the surrealist writing and the phantasms of the ludic re-conquering lost purities of language in postmodernity and, surely, by continuing the trans-avant-garde paradigm. By also dealing with the novel (The Cradle of respiration), I tried emphasizing new values, not as much fictional or diction wise, arhitextual and architectural, but more individualizing. Herta Mullerřs prose is at the same time one of the human condition that needs saving, but also one of survival through the ardour of beauty, through the inner tension of the dream about a better world in which the authentic humanism would defeat the bestiality of the dictatorial and exterminating power of any hope for the better, of any progressionist horizon.
    [Show full text]
  • Widening Rothberg's Concept of Implication in Reading Herta Müller's the Hunger
    JPR Guilt-tripping the ‘Implicated Subject’:Widening Rothberg’s Concept of Implication in Reading Herta Müller’s The Hunger Angel Juliane Prade-Weiss mplication, one might attempt to paraphrase Michael Rothberg’s concept, renders subjects guilty of wrongdoing of various kinds. Rothberg, however, avoids the charged terms guilt and morality in order to attain a fresh perspective onto why people of various Ihistorical and cultural contexts participate in wrongdoing, even in spite of knowing better. Such a fresh perspective is urgently needed in order to move beyond a mere naming, blaming, and singling out of culprits, towards any analysis of the complexity of involvements. My contribution seeks to outline that a more complex engagement with the conceptual history and systematic claims of canonical notions of ‘guilt’ and ‘morality’, nevertheless, makes implication a stronger concept for approaching both historical complicities and the contemporary crisis in democratic participation due to a seemingly ubiquitous implication in neoliberal structures. My response to Rothberg will proceed in three steps: The first section will outline Rothberg’s treatment of moral concepts and the systematic purpose of these terms in understanding wrongdoing; the second section will propose a broadening of Rothberg’s notion of implication and link it to my own work on the crisis in democratic participation; the third section will propose language as a model for comprehending implication in a pre-formed structure that, still, prompts and demands individual responsibility. Language as presented in literature emphasises this complex structure, as I will show with reference to Herta Müller’s novel The Hunger Angel (Atemschaukel). A reading of select passages from her text serves to outline the relevance of Rothberg’s concept of implication in the analysis of problematic par- ticipation in wrongdoing, and to demonstrate that an expanded notion of implication that comprises traditional moral terminology is even more productive than Rothberg’s narrower focus.
    [Show full text]
  • Herta Mã¼ller
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln University of Nebraska Press -- Sample Books and Chapters University of Nebraska Press Fall 2013 Herta Müller Bettina Brandt Valentina Glajar Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/unpresssamples Brandt, Bettina and Glajar, Valentina, "Herta Müller" (2013). University of Nebraska Press -- Sample Books and Chapters. 227. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/unpresssamples/227 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Nebraska Press at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Nebraska Press -- Sample Books and Chapters by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Herta Müller Buy the Book Buy the Book Herta Müller: Politics and Aesthetics Edited by Bettina Brandt and Valentina Glajar University of Nebraska Press | Lincoln and London Buy the Book © 2013 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska The Nobel lecture by Herta Müller used by permission of the Nobel Foundation. © The Nobel Foundation 2009. Text from the collages in Die blassen Herren mit den Mokkatassen used by permission of Carl Hanser Verlag. © Carl Hanser Verlag München 2005. All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Herta Müller: politics and aesthetics / edited by Bettina Brandt and Valentina Glajar. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8032-4510-5 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Müller, Herta, 1953– —Criticism and interpretation. I. Brandt, Bettina, editor of compilation. II. Glajar, Valentina, editor of compilation. PT2673.U29234Z75 2013 833'.914—dc23 2013017383 Set in Lyon by Laura Wellington.
    [Show full text]
  • Herta Müller: Politics and Aesthetics
    Herta Müller Herta Müller: Politics and Aesthetics Edited by Bettina Brandt and Valentina Glajar University of Nebraska Press | Lincoln and London © 2013 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska The Nobel lecture by Herta Müller used by permission of the Nobel Foundation. © The Nobel Foundation 2009. Text from the collages in Die blassen Herren mit den Mokkatassen used by permission of Carl Hanser Verlag. © Carl Hanser Verlag München 2005. All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Herta Müller: politics and aesthetics / edited by Bettina Brandt and Valentina Glajar. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8032-4510-5 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Müller, Herta, 1953– —Criticism and interpretation. I. Brandt, Bettina, editor of compilation. II. Glajar, Valentina, editor of compilation. PT2673.U29234Z75 2013 833'.914—dc23 2013017383 Set in Lyon by Laura Wellington. Designed by J. Vadnais. Contents List of Illustrations viii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Bettina Brandt and Valentina Glajar Part 1. Life, Writing, and Betrayal 1. Herta Müller: Writing and Betrayal 15 Allan Stoekl 2. Nobel Lecture: Every Word Knows Something of a Vicious Circle 20 Herta Müller 3. Collage Poems 31 Herta Müller 4. Interview with Ernest Wichner 36 Valentina Glajar and Bettina Brandt Part 2. Totalitarianism, Autofiction, Memory 5. When Dictatorships Fail to Deprive of Dignity: Herta Müller’s “Romanian Period” 57 Cristina Petrescu 6. “Die akute Einsamkeit des Menschen”: Herta Müller’s Herztier 87 Brigid Haines 7. Facts, Fiction, Autofiction, and Surfiction in Herta Müller’s Work 109 Paola Bozzi 8.
    [Show full text]