Heimat As Schein: Debunking the German Myth of Heimat in Herta Müller’S Narratives
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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 .................................................................... 32 1.2 When Staatsheimat Outshines the Dorfheimat in Der Fasan .................................. 53 1.3 “Angleichung von Stadt und Dorf”, or The Illusion of Progress in the City ............. 68 Chapter 2: Der Schein trügt (wieder): Heimat as Panopticon ...................................... 80 2.1 “Was glänzt, das sieht”: Glittering Schein as Panopticon in Der Fuchs ................. 80 2.2 When the Schein of Heimat Turns into a Panopticon in Atemschaukel ................. 95 Chapter 3: Der Schein trügt nicht mehr ........................................................................... 111 3.1 From Heimatlos to Heimatsatt: Rejecting the Deceptive Schein of Heimat in Atemschaukel ........................................................................................................................... 111 3.2 The Unpredictable Schein of the City in Reisende auf einem Bein ...................... 125 Chapter 4: Heimat Space as Widerschein ....................................................................... 140 4.1 Placing Müller’s Work in the Spatial Turn ................................................................. 140 4.2 Unveiling the “trügerische Schein” of Heimat Through Orte and Gegenstände . 152 4.3 On Colouration and Light, or When the Schein of Heimat Turns to Blur ............. 166 Chapter 5: Language and Silence as Schein .................................................................. 179 5.1 Refuting the Formula Sprache ist Heimat ................................................................. 179 5.2 “Heimat ist das,was gesprochen wird” in Der Fasan .............................................. 189 5.3 On Silence ...................................................................................................................... 199 Concluding Remarks ............................................................................................................ 208 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................. 215 Mallet 3 Abstract This project examines Müller’s anti-Heimat stance through the interrelated discourses of space, gender and morality. Placing Müller’s oeuvre in the spatial turn, this dissertation first explores issues related to gender and morality found within the distinct spatial entities she identifies as the German-speaking Dorfheimat and the Romanian Staatsheimat. In both these Heimat spaces, Müller exposes a social construct that relies on patriarchal mechanisms of oppression and exclusion to maintain its immaculate veneer. For Müller, Heimat is reduced to a myth based on ideological and spatial ideals that perpetuate instances of hypocrisy and duplicity. Through Müller’s compelling imagery – her Bildlichkeit, this dissertation then interprets Heimat and its mechanisms of betrayal as a coded tableau; a visual landscape made decipherable through an analysis of verbal imagery grounded in the leitmotiv of Schein. Schein, I argue, is pervasive in Müller’s descriptions of objects and places as colouration and light. As such, Schein visualizes truth as that which is either disclosed or silenced. Along this line of thought, this dissertation concludes by examining the recurring theme of silence found throughout Müller’s narratives. Mallet 4 Résumé Ce projet de recherche porte sur la position anti-Heimat de Müller par l’entremise d’une approche discursive d’espace, de genre et de moralité. En situant l’œuvre de Müller dans une optique d’espace, cette thèse expose d’abord les problématiques liées au genre et à la moralité au sein des entités régionales du Dorfheimat germanophone et du Staatsheimat roumain. Müller met à nu un construit social qui s’appuie sur des mécanismes patriarcaux d’oppression et d’exclusion afin de conserver son lustre idéologique. Pour Müller, le Heimat se réduit à un mythe basé sur des idéaux d’espace et d’idéologie, lesquels perpétuent l’hypocrisie et la duplicité. À l’aide des images évocatrices produites par Müller à travers son Bildlichkeit, ce projet de recherche étudie ensuite la façon avec laquelle l’auteure transforme le Heimat et ses mécanismes de trahison en tableau codé : un paysage visuel qu’il est possible de déchiffrer par une analyse de l’imagerie verbale comprise dans le motif du Schein. Dans mon analyse, j’avance que le motif du Schein se retrouve au sein des descriptions que Müller fait des objets et endroits en termes de couleur et de lumière. Ainsi, le Schein se veut une manifestation silencieuse de la vérité dans les œuvres de Müller, puisque le motif créé un tableau visuel de ce qui serait autrement étouffé ou gardé sous silence. Dans ce même ordre d’idées, cette thèse se conclut par l’analyse du thème du silence, multiforme et omniprésent dans l’œuvre de Müller. Mallet 5 Acknowledgment I am grateful to McGill University and especially to the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures for received scholarships and constant academic support. This dissertation was also made possible through generous funding provided by Le Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Société et la Culture, the German Society of Montreal, as well as the Québec-Bavaria research fund. I would like to pay tribute to Dr. Karin Bauer, thesis supervisor, who believed in this project from the very beginning and patiently guided me throughout the writing process of this dissertation with inspiring knowledge and invaluable insight. It was both a privilege and an honour to have her as my supervisor and mentor. I also owe a debt of gratitude to my professors, colleagues and classmates at McGill University and at Université de Montréal, and my current colleagues at the Université de Moncton for providing me with a supportive and collegial study and working environment. I would also like to acknowledge April Bateman, Pete Schweppe, Alessandro Giardino, Elisabeth Tutschek, Isabelle Benoit, Regina Bäck, Janet Janzen and Marie- Lise Auvray for fruitful discussions, as well as for reading and commenting on various parts of this thesis. To the many others I have not mentioned here, I hope to communicate my appreciation personally. On a more personal note, I would like to give my special thanks to all my friends, old and new. My deepest gratitude goes out to my parents Clayton and Twinksy, my brother Chris, my aunt Marie-Claire, and Nicolas, for their unconditional support and always being there for me, no matter how far the distance. Mallet 6 Introduction I. Herta Müller’s Disdain for the German Concept of Heimat Das war der Betrug der Dinge, der ganzen Umgebung an mir. Weil sie sich als ‘Heimat' verstand und genügte, lieβ sie mich in ihr verstecktes Leben nie hinein. (Müller, “Betrug” 214) Herta Müller’s sentiment towards Heimat is one of rejection. In her essay “Heimat oder Der Betrug der Dinge” (1997), she makes her stance clear: “Wenn ich mich zu Hause fühle, brauche ich keine ‘Heimat’. Und wenn ich mich nicht zu Hause fühle, auch nicht” (“Betrug” 219). Reflective of her essay’s title, Müller’s novels expose the “Betrug der Dinge,” the deceit of things, and denounce the traditional and nostalgic German concept of Heimat. In the critical portrayal of Heimat she delivers in her essay “Der König verneigt sich und tötet” (2003), Müller makes a well-defined distinction between the smaller Heimat of the village and the broader Heimat of the nation-state: “Dorfheimat als Deutschtümelei und Staatsheimat als kritikloser Gerhorsam und blinde Angst vor Repression” (König 29). On the one hand, she criticizes the German village and its 300 year-old patriotism based on an ethnocentric myth of superiority that relies on patriarchal mechanisms of exclusion to produce and ensure the Heimat myth. On the other hand, she denounces Ceausescu’s nationalist and patronizing politics of duplicity that left the Romanian population caught in a “web of cruelty, corruption, and hypocrisy” (Bauer, Gender 153). By forcing men and