After the well known and acclaimed Doris Lessing who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2008, it’s now Herta Müller’s turn. She is definitely not a house hold name, so it’s interesting to pose the question: who is Herta Müller and why has she attained the lime light of the most prestigious and coveted literature award in the world?
Herta Müller’s Background
Herta Müller does not have her own website. So, biographical data had to be obtained from wikipedia.
She was born on17th of August 1953 in a village called Nitchidorf located in the Banat region of Rumania. Herta and her family belonged to the German minority of Rumania and her grandfather was apparently a farmer and merchant. Her father however, joined the Waffen SS and served in the infamous unit. It would be very interesting to know more about the facts which brought a German from Rumania to service in the armed wing of Hitler’s Nazi party. The Waffen SS was never officially part of the German army, although it saw battle in World War II. The Waffen SS was meant to be an elite police force once the war was over but was declared a criminal organisation during the Nuremberg Trial.
Mrs. Müller’s mother was lucky to survive five years in a slave labour camp in Ukraine in the former Soviet Union.
Herta Müller studied German and Rumanian literature and worked first as a translator in her native Rumania. Refusal to cooperate with Ceausescu’s secret police lead to her dismissal. For a while she taught kindergarten and made a living by giving private German lessons. Her first – censored – novel was published in German language in Rumania in 1982. Mrs. Müller became a member of Aktionsgruppe Banat, an association of German speaking writers who objected to the state censorship and fought for freedom of speech.
Together with her husband, novelist Richard Wagner, like Mrs. Müller a Rumanian of German origin, she left Rumania under the pressure of the government in 1987 and went to Berlin where she currently lives. She has held lectureships in German universities and is a prolific writer, expressing herself in novels, short stories and poetry.
Herta Müller’s Work and Awards
The latest Nobel Prize winner has published some twenty books. Unfortunately, few have been translated into English. Her latest novel, Atemschaukel published in English under the title: “Everything I own I carry with me” is one of the few exceptions. An extract of the novel can be enjoyed on signandsight.
Herta Müller has also won 19 awards and prizes, now topped by the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Her writing is strongly marked by autobiographical episodes and experiences under the Ceausescu regime and World War II, which she coveys in strong and compelling language to the reader.
Like with many Nobel Prize winners before her, the nomination of a writer who is practically an unknown to the reading world at large and shoots to sudden fame winning the top prize, controversy about the merits of her award t has erupted. The only way forward of course is, to get to know her writing, put one’s nose in one of her books and make an informed decision. Hopefully, the Nobel Prize will have the effect that more of Herta Müller’s work will be translated into English and thus made available to a wider readership.
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