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Herta Müller

ヘルタ・ミュラー

Heruta Myūrā

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1953-08-17 （Nițchidorf, Timiș County, SR Romania）
Nationality
Romanian, German
Languages
German, Romanian
Religion
Catholic
Residence History
Nițchidorf, Romania → Timișoara, Romania → Berlin, Germany

Career

Occupations
novelist, poet, essayist, translator
Active Years
1982-
Affiliations
Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (member)
Memberships
Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung
Influenced By
Franz Kafka, Romanian folk music, Maria Tănase, Oskar Pastior, Richard Wagner (novelist, ex-husband)

Education

West University of Timișoara
German studies and Romanian literature
Country: Romania

Awards

Nobel Prize in Literature
2009
Organization: Swedish Academy
Result: 受賞
Franz Werfel Human Rights Award
2009
Work: Atemschaukel (The Hunger Angel)
Organization: Franz Werfel Human Rights Award (awarding body)
Result: 受賞
International Dublin Literary Award
1998
Work: The Land of Green Plums
Organization: International Dublin Literary Award
Result: 受賞
Kleist Prize
1994
Organization: Kleist Prize
Result: 受賞
Aristeion Prize
1995
Organization: Aristeion
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Niederungen (Nadirs)

1982 short stories / autobiographical

A collection of early stories portraying childhood and minority experience in the Banat German community; parts were censored in Romania.

minority experienceoppressionvillage life

The Passport (Der Mensch ist ein großer Fasan auf der Welt)

1986 novel

A short novel depicting village life under repression, marked by coded speech and pervasive surveillance.

surveillancesilenceoppression

The Land of Green Plums (Herztier)

1994 novel

A novel about the pressures of the secret police, friendship and loss, rooted in experiences of the author and her circle.

friendshipsurveillanceoppression

Atemschaukel (The Hunger Angel)

2009 novel

A novel portraying the deportation of Romania's German minority to Soviet labor camps after WWII, written with poetic concentration and frank prose.

deportationforced labormemory and trauma

Reisende auf einem Bein (Traveling on One Leg)

1989 novel

Deals with movement and solitude; explores leaving oppressive environments and the individual's inner life.

lonelinessmovementself-exploration

Bibliography

  • Niederungen (Nadirs) (1982)
  • Drückender Tango (1984)
  • The Passport (1986)
  • The Land of Green Plums (1994)
  • Atemschaukel (The Hunger Angel) (2009)

Adaptations

  • Film adaptation of Der Fuchs war damals schon der Jäger: 'Vulpe – vânător' (1993)

Translations by Author

  • Translated and wrote foreword for Liu Xia's poetry (2014–2015)

Translations of Works

  • Atemschaukel translated into English as 'The Hunger Angel' (Philip Boehm) and into more than twenty languages

Style & Themes

Literary Style
concentration of poetry and frankness of prosefragmentary and allegorical descriptionsuse of German as a minority language
Recurring Motifs
oppression and surveillanceviolence and crueltydeportation and forced labormemory and traumadouble consciousness of language

Legacy

Internationally acclaimed for poetically concentrated and frank depictions of oppression and minority experience under communism; her Nobel Prize in Literature (2009) cemented her global reputation. Her works, widely translated, continue to influence literary and human rights discourse.

Museums

  • Nobel Prize Museum (exhibits: Müller's nail scissors, etc.) Stockholm, Sweden

Academic Societies

  • Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung

Archives

  • Nobel Foundation archives (related materials)

In Popular Culture

  • Müller's nail scissors used to cut letters are exhibited at the Nobel Prize Museum

Quotes

  • “who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed.”
    Source: Swedish Academy (Nobel Prize citation) (2009)

Trivia

  • A fake death announcement about her was circulated on Twitter in 2020; her publisher denied it.
  • She is known for cutting letters from printed material for use in texts; the nail scissors she used are displayed at the Nobel Prize Museum.