Herta Müller
Herta Müller is a Romanian-born writer, born on August 17, 1953, in Nitzkydorf, Romania, known for her poignant explorations of life under oppressive regimes. She studied German and Romanian literature at the University of Timisoara and began her literary career while working in a machine factory. Her first collection of short stories, *Niederungen*, published in Germany after being smuggled out due to government censorship, reflects the poverty and repression she experienced in her homeland. Following her outspoken criticism of Romania’s Communist government, Müller emigrated to Germany with her husband in 1987. She is celebrated for her novels, including *The Land of Green Plums*, which won her prestigious awards, including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2009. Müller’s work is characterized by its sensitive portrayal of alienation, corruption, and the vulnerabilities faced by women, often drawing from her own experiences in a small, ethnic German community within Romania. In addition to her literary achievements, she has been recognized for her advocacy for understanding and tolerance. Müller continues to be a significant voice in contemporary literature, with ongoing translations of her works into various languages.
Herta Müller
Author
- Born: August 17, 1953
- Place of Birth: Nitzkydorf, Banat, Romania
Biography
Herta Müller was born on August 17, 1953, in Nitzkydorf, Romania. She attended the University of Timisoara, where she studied German and Romanian literature and joined a group of writers whose goal was freedom of expression. After graduating from school she worked for a time in a machine factory while writing her first collection of short stories, Niederungen (1982). The stories addressed the poverty, superstition, and repressive government of the village in which she was raised. Müller was unable to publish the collection in complete form because of strict government censorship.
Her second collection, Druckender Tango (1984), likewise examined her village and its treatment of nonconformists. Niederungen was eventually smuggled into Germany, where it was published and very well received. Müller then traveled to Germany, where she spoke out against the repressive Communist government in Romania under Nicolae Ceauşescu. In response to her comments, the Romanian government forbid her from publishing her works in that country. Müller and her husband, Richard Wagner, applied for permission to emigrate, and after a two-year wait were finally able to leave Romania for Germany and settle in Berlin.
In addition to short story collections, Müller wrote a collection of essays, Hunger und Seide: Essays (1995), and several novels, perhaps the most notable of which is Herztier (1994), which was translated by Michael Hoffman and published as The Land of Green Plums (1996). Müller received the Kleist Prize in Germany for her writing and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (with Michael Hoffman) for The Land of Green Plums. Müller’s work is noted for her acute depictions of corruption, repression, brutality, alienation, and the particular vulnerability of women. Drawing on her own experiences of growing up in a small German-speaking village in the midst of a Romanian-speaking country and of dealing with the secret police and corrupt officials, Müller creates sensitive, psychologically well-developed portraits of the victims of corruption and the communities tainted by its horrors.
Müller completed several works in the 2000s and 2010s, including Heimat ist das, was gesprochen wird (2001); Der König verneigt sich und tötet (2003); Die blassen Herren mit den Mokkatassen (2005); Atemschaukel: Roman (2009); Immer derselbe Schnee und immer derselbe Onkel (2011); and Vater telefoniert mit den Fliegen (2012). Additionally, some works Müller completed in German in the twentieth century have been translated into English in the at the turn of the twenty-first century. These include Traveling on One Leg, Valentina Glajar and André Lefevere’s 1998 translation of Reisende auf einem Bein (1989); Nadirs, Sieglinde Lug’s 1999 translation of Niederungen; The Appointment, Michael Hulse and Philip Boehm’s 2001 translation of Heute wär ich mir lieber nicht begegnet (1997); and The Hunger Angel, Boehm’s 2012 translation of Atemschaukel. In 2013 The Hunger Angel won the Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize, and was nominated for the Best Translated Book Award.
In 2022, Müller was granted the Prize for Understanding and Tolerance by the Jewish Museum, Berlin. In 2024, the author spoke out against the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.
The Swedish Academy awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature to Müller, “who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed.” After learning that she won the Nobel Prize, two of Müller’s books, The Passport (1989 translation of Der Mensch ist ein großer Fasan auf der Welt, 1986) and The Land of Green Plums, were re-released in 2009.
Bibliography
Allen, Katie. “Nobel-Winner Müller Rushed Back into Print.” Bookseller 16 Oct. 2009: 37.Literary Reference Center. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
“Herta Müller.” Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media, 2014. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
“Herta Müller and Barrie Kosky Receive the Prize for Understanding and Tolerance.” Judisches Museum Berlin, 12 Sat. 2022, www.jmberlin.de/en/press-release-12-november-2022. Accessed 2 Oct. 2024.
Müller, Herta. “Herta Müller, The Art of Fiction No. 225.” Interview by Philip Boehm. Paris Review. Paris Review, Fall 2014. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
Müller, Herta, and Philip Boehm. “Interview with Herta Müller and Philip Boehm.” German Life & Letters 68.2 (2015): 324–32. Literary Reference Center. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
“Profile: Herta Muller.” BBC News. BBC, 8 Oct. 2009. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.