Entre a escrita da história e a literatura nos ensaios de Herta Müller

Abstract

This dissertation has among its objectives to analyse the relation kept by romanian writer Herta Müller with her past, especially the years lived under the regime of Nicolau Ceausescu and the difficulties of adaptation arising due to exile to Germany, based on the books of essays The king bows and kills and Always the same snow and always the same uncle. For the author, writing represents both a way of dealing with the silence about the past that prevailed in her native village and a realm for criticizing governmental practices that disrespect individual freedoms. Another aim of this dissertation is to discuss some approximations that can be established between the writing of history and literature based on the reflections elaborated by Müller on her creative process. Marked by a strong autobiographical (or autofictional, as Müller prefers) content, the essays are constructed in order to combine a narrative of different moments of the writer’s life to the questioning of how to expose these events through writing. By thinking carefully about her creative process, Müller allows a reflection on the works of historians, permeated by aspects such as subjectivity, the assumption of the partiality of our versions about the past and the importance of being attentive to the use we make of language. Throughout the dissertation, some media reactions after the announcement made by the Swedish Academy in october 2009 are also examined: upon receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature that year, the writer’s books were the subject of comments that highlighted several aspects of her career, including the political component that permeates her texts and the creative use of language advocated by Müller.