nobel prize week, day 4

Day 4 is the Prize for Literature, but as always, we wait in anticipation for Day 5, the Peace Prize. Last year, there was a lot of build-up, with predictions that Human Rights Watch or Chinese dissidents would win the award, but alas, a career diplomat won the prize. Undeterred, would-be soothsayers claim (yet again) that the Nobel Prize committee is seeking to "return to activist roots," with top odds on former hostage Ingrid Betancourt (France), PM Morgan Tsvangirai (Zimbabwe), peace mediator Sen. Piedad Cordoba (Colombia), and human rights activist Dr. Sima Samar (Afghanistan). Given how far off mark the predictions were last year, I won't put too much credence on this list (which also mentions President Obama and French President Sarkozy), but if I had to guess, I'd guess PM Tsvangirai as a relatively safe pick for the Committee that will still make them feel like they're "boosting" the position of a peace maker.

But on to Literature! The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2009 is awarded to Herta Müller (Germany), "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed."

From her bio:

Herta Müller was born on August 17, 1953 in the German-speaking town Nitzkydorf in Banat, Romania. Her parents were members of the German-speaking minority in Romania. Her father had served in the Waffen SS during World War II. Many German Romanians were deported to the Soviet Union in 1945, including Müller's mother who spent five years in a work camp in present-day Ukraine. Many years later, in Atemschaukel (2009), Müller was to depict the exile of the German Romanians in the Soviet Union. From 1973 to 1976, Müller studied German and Romanian literature at the university in Timişoara (Temeswar). During this period, she was associated with Aktionsgruppe Banat, a circle of young German-speaking authors who, in opposition to Ceauşescu’s dictatorship, sought freedom of speech. After completing her studies, she worked as a translator at a machine factory from 1977 to 1979. She was dismissed when she refused to be an informant for the secret police. After her dismissal, she was harassed by Securitate.

Müller made her debut with the collection of short stories Niederungen (1982), which was censored in Romania. Two years later, she published the uncensored version in Germany and, in the same year, Drückender Tango in Romania. In these two works, Müller depicts life in a small, German-speaking village and the corruption, intolerance and repression to be found there. The Romanian national press was very critical of these works while, outside of Romania, the German press received them very positively. Because Müller had publicly criticized the dictatorship in Romania, she was prohibited from publishing in her own country. In 1987, Müller emigrated together with her husband, author Richard Wagner.

The novels Der Fuchs war damals schon der Jäger (1992), Herztier (1994; The Land of Green Plums, 1996) and Heute wär ich mir lieber nicht begegnet (1997; The Appointment, 2001) give, with chiselled details, a portrait of daily life in a stagnated dictatorship. Müller has given guest lectures at universities, colleges and other venues in Paderborn, Warwick, Hamburg, Swansea, Gainsville (Florida), Kassel, Göttingen, Tübingen and Zürich among other places. She lives in Berlin. Since 1995 she has served as a member of Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung, in Darmstadt.

And her listed works (1982-present) (works noted by the bibliography in bold):

Niederungen. – 1982
Drückender Tango : Erzählungen. – 1984
Der Mensch ist ein groβer Fasan auf der Welt : Roman. – 1986
Barfüβiger Februar : Prosa. – 1987
Reisende auf einem Bein. – 1989
Der Teufel sitzt im Spiegel. – 1991
Der Fuchs war damals schon der Jäger : Roman. – 1992
Eine warme Kartoffel ist ein warmes Bett. – 1992
Der Wächter nimmt seinen Kamm : vom Weggehen und Ausscheren. – 1993
Herztier : Roman. – 1994 (The Land of Green Plums. - 1996)
Hunger und Seide : Essays. – 1995
In der Falle. – 1996
Heute wär ich mir lieber nicht begegnet. – 1997 (The Appointment. - 2001)
Der fremde Blick oder Das Leben ist ein Furz in der Laterne. – 1999
Im Haarknoten wohnt eine Dame. – 2000
Heimat ist das, was gesprochen wird. – 2001
Der König verneigt sich und tötet. – 2003
Die blassen Herren mit den Mokkatassen. – 2005
Atemschaukel : Roman. – 2009

Selected Criticism
Die erfundene Wahrnehmung : Annäherung an Herta Müller / Norbert Otto Eke (Hg.). – 1991
Der Druck der Erfahrung treibt die Sprache in die Dichtung : Bildlichkeit in Texten Herta Müllers / Ralph Köhnen (Hrsg.). – 1997
Herta Müller / edited by Brigid Haines. – 1998
Predoiu, Grazziella, Faszination und Provokation bei Herta Müller : eine thematische und motivische Auseinandersetzung. – 2000
Dascalu, Bogdan Mihai, Held und Welt in Herta Müllers Erzählungen. – 2004
Bozzi, Paola, Der fremde Blick : zum Werk Herta Müllers. – 2005
Patrut, Iulia-Karin, Schwarze Schwester - Teufelsjunge : Ethnizität und Geschlecht bei Paul Celan und Herta Müller. – 2006