CULTURAL IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY GERMAN-ROMANIAN LITERATURE: RICHARD WAGNER AND HERTA MÜLLER by ANCA-ELENA LUCA HOLDEN (Under the Direction of Martin Kagel) ABSTRACT In my dissertation, I discuss literary representations of cultural identity formation and dissolution in selected works by contemporary German-Romanian authors Richard Wagner and Herta Müller. Wagner and Müller are ethnic Germans who emerged as prominent authors under Ceauşescu‘s dictatorship. Along with other German-Romanian authors, they were part of the literary group Aktionsgruppe Banat (1972-75), one of the most important dissident groups in Romania. In their writings, Wagner and Müller openly criticized the communist regime. They also questioned the cultural identity of the Banat- Swabian communities in which they grew up. As a result of their political opposition to the regime, they were harassed by the Securitate and banned from publishing. Because of their German heritage, political experience under the communist regime, and their status as immigrants and political refugees in West Germany, Wagner and Müller occupy a unique position in contemporary German society and culture. In their works, they challenge the nation-state as the basis of German nationalism and question cultural definitions of ―Germanness‖ based on biological, territorial, and state- centered concepts. While Wagner‘s primary focus is on the cultural, linguistic, and political challenges that East-Central European ethnic German immigrants face in West Germany, Müller‘s works concentrate almost exclusively on the oppression and persecution under Ceauşescu‘s dictatorship and the tyrannical atmosphere of the Banat- Swabian village. In my analysis of Wagner‘s fiction, I discuss three figures of Banat-Swabian writers who construct personalized cultural identities and attempt to re-invent themselves as writers during Ceauşescu‘s regime and after immigration to West Germany. In my analysis of Müller‘s works, I examine the narrative strategies that five characters, four Banat Swabians and one ethnic German, employ to interrogate and resist conceptualizations of ―Germanness‖ in the aftermath of World War II, under Ceauşescu‘s dictatorship, and after immigration to West Germany. Wagner‘s characters negotiate triangular cultural identity paradigms between the ―periphery‖ (the Banat and communist Romania) and the ―center‖ (West Germany), which combine elements of Banat-Swabian, Romanian, and Western languages and cultures. The cultural identity of Müller‘s protagonists, however, is marked by acute fragmentation as a result of their traumatic experiences in the Banat-Swabian village and communist Romania. INDEX WORDS: cultural identity, German-Romanian literature, transculturality, ―Germanness,‖ Richard Wagner, Herta Müller, the Banat, communist Romania, West Germany CULTURAL IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY GERMAN-ROMANIAN LITERATURE: RICHARD WAGNER AND HERTA MÜLLER by ANCA-ELENA LUCA HOLDEN B.A., Covenant College, 1996 M.A., University of Georgia, 1999 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2010 © 2010 Anca-Elena Luca Holden All Rights Reserved CULTURAL IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY GERMAN-ROMANIAN LITERATURE: RICHARD WAGNER AND HERTA MÜLLER by ANCA-ELENA LUCA HOLDEN Major Professor: MARTIN KAGEL Committee: RONALD BOGUE THOMAS CERBU MARJANNE GOOZÉ KATHARINA WILSON Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia December 2010 DEDICATION To Jim and Daniel, and to my parents Ioan and Felicia Luca iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Completing this dissertation was made possible with the unfailing support of my professors, family, and friends. I owe immense gratitude to my dissertation advisor, Dr. Martin Kagel. His outstanding intellectual energy, scholarly guidance, academic wisdom, and warm friendship have been invaluable throughout my years as a graduate student at the University of Georgia. He is an amazing role model and mentor, whose unwavering academic, emotional, and moral support inspired me and helped me move forward with the dissertation. Dr. Kagel believed in my project and my ability to complete it and generously supported and encouraged my ideas with brilliant advice and critical insight. He gave me direction and a sense of accomplishment when I lacked it. I am deeply grateful to the members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Ronald Bogue, Dr. Thomas Cerbu, Dr. Marjanne Goozé, and Dr. Katharina Wilson, whose remarkable scholarship and dedication to students have greatly inspired me. Their insightful questions and comments as well as their exceptional editorial skills helped me polish my dissertation and improve my writing skills. I thank each of them for their enthusiastic support and guidance. To my friends and colleagues, Letitia Guran and Iulia Pittman from the University of Georgia, and Ramona Uritescu-Lombard from Harvard University, I am thankful for their cheerful encouragement. I owe special thanks to Ms. Nell Burger and Ms. Regina Adams at the University of Georgia for their exemplary administrative assistance and enthusiastic encouragement. I am indebted to The Center for Humanities and Arts and the v Dean‘s Award for Research in the Arts and the Humanities at the University of Georgia for generously funding my research trip to Romania. Special thanks to Dr. George Guţu at the University of Bucharest for his generous academic support. I am grateful to Dr. Karen Remmler at Mt. Holyoke College and my students at Smith and Mt. Holyoke Colleges for their enthusiastic encouragement. I thank our churches in Massachusetts, Florida, and Georgia for their prayers and heartfelt encouragement. My special thanks are reserved for Melanie Rivard, Trish and Craig Nicolson, Klaus and Christina Nüßlein, Richard and Laura Vachet, Chip and Norma Pettigrew, Jessica Archer, and Barry St. Clair. Many thanks to Dr. Tatiana Scott for her medical advice and help when I most needed them. Most importantly, the members of my immediate and extended family in the USA, Romania, and Holland have been an unwavering center of support and love. To Mircea and Irina Luca, Iuliana Vasilie, Gina and Livius Sacasan, Liana Puscas, Relu and Mariana Puscas, and Octavia de Weerdt, I am thankful for their encouragement and prayers. My parents, Ioan and Felicia Luca, have been life models of faith in God, love, prayer, tremendous understanding, and loving encouragement. Their faith, courage, and endurance under Ceauşescu‘s dictatorship and friendships with ethnic Germans from Romania greatly inspired me. I am deeply grateful to Judi and Sid Holden for their love, encouragement, and prayers. Words are not enough to express my deep gratitude to my son, Daniel, whose love, patience, and encouraging words, ―Mama, you can do it,‖ were a tremendous blessing and unspeakable source of strength and joy. I thank Jim, the love of my life and my hero, whose unconditional love, amazing patience, steadfast encouragement, and vi inspiring faith in God, carried me through the highs and lows of this project. My largest gratitude is reserved for God. His love, strength, and grace I felt each step of the way. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................v INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1 THE ―GERMANS‖ OF ROMANIA: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW ...........15 Transylvanian Saxons: Invited Colonists with a Privileged Status ...........16 The German Colonization of the Banat: A Case of Constrained Immigration ..........................................................20 The German Colonization of Bukovina: A Case of Austrian Rule and German Culture ...........................................23 German-Romanians in Romania: 1918-1989 ............................................27 2 THE FORMATION OF GERMAN-ROMANIAN CULTURAL IDENTITY.................................................................................34 Transylvania ...............................................................................................36 The Banat ...................................................................................................42 Bukovina ....................................................................................................44 Literature Written in German in Romania: 1918-1945 ..............................46 Rumäniendeutsch: Usage and Misusage of an Invented Concept .............51 German-Romanian Language and Literature After 1945 ..........................53 Aktionsgruppe Banat: ―Eine Minderheit in der Minderheit‖ .....................64 viii The Preeminence of Poetry in Modern German-Romanian Literature: 1965-1989 ..................................................................................................74 1980-1989: The Last Decade of German-Romanian Literature? ..............75 3 GERMAN-ROMANIAN AUTHORS AND THE QUESTION OF ―GERMANNESS‖ OF CONTEMPORARY GERMAN LITERATURE .......79 What Makes Aussiedler ―German‖? ..........................................................82 ―German‖ and Politically Persecuted ........................................................92 The Challenges of the ―mitgebrachte Sprache‖ .........................................95 German-Romanian Authors and German Migration Literature ...............103 Interculturality, Transculturality, and the Case for