2009년도 노벨 문학상 헤르타 뮐러(Herta Müller) 선정

HonoluluTimes 올해의 노벨문학상에 루마니아 태생의 독일 여성작가 헤르타 뮐러(56·사진)가 선정됐다. 스웨덴 한림원은 8일 뮐러가 ‘저지대’ 등의 작품을 통해 “응축된 시정과 산문의 진솔함으로 소외층의 풍경을 묘사했다”고.
전문보기>>http://bit.ly/2wDPzv 

한림원의 피터 잉그런드 종신비서는 “그의 언어는 매우 정교하고 환상적”이라며 “많은 이미지를 짧은 문장에 담아내고 있다”고 말했다.

루마니아의 니치도르프에서 태어난 뮐러는 루마니아 티미소아라 대학에서 독일학문과 루마니아 문학을 공부한 뒤 1976년 기계회사에서 번역가로 취직했으나 공산당 비밀경찰 ‘세큐리타테’에 협조를 거부했다는 이유로 3년 만에 해고됐다. 그는 유치원에서 유아들을 가르치고 독일어 과외를 하면서 생계를 꾸렸다. 그의 첫 작품인 단편집 ‘저지대’는 1982년 루마니아에서 공산당의 검열을 받은 뒤 발간됐다.

뮐러는 1987년 남편인 소설가 리차드 바그너와 함께 독일로 간 뒤 여러 독일 대학에서 강연했다.

뮐러에게는 1000만 스웨덴크로네(약 16억8000만원)의 상금이 수여되며 시상식은 12월 10일 스웨덴 스톡홀름에서 열린다. /세계일보
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HonoluluTimes Herta Muller wins 2009 Nobel Prize in literature http://bit.ly/KwFyb

Herta Muller wins Nobel Prize in Literature

October 8, 2009 | 5:24 am

An ethnic German born in Romania, writer Herta Müller has won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. The 56 year old, who emigrated to Germany in 1987, has made the trials of living under Ceauşescu's dictatorship a focus of her work.
In its citation, the Nobel committee wrote that Müller, "with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed."
Müller, a novelist and short story writer, was considered by some to be among the top authors in the running for the award, although Amos Oz of Israel was the odds-on favorite of British wagering firm Ladbroke's.
Ladbroke's, which had Müller, at 50 to 1, had two American writers as likely winners: Joyce Carol Oates and Philip Roth. Last year, Horace Engdahl, then permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, which distributes the Nobels, caused a stir when he declared American fiction unfit for the award. "Europe still is the center of the literary world...not the United States," he told the Associated Press. "The US is too isolated, too insular."
Müller's cross-European history may have appealed to this year's judges. She was raised in a German-speaking minority in Romania, but her early writing set her on a collision course with the repressive regime there. After her first two books, she was forbidden from publishing in Romania, leading to her departure for Germany. When she won the 1998 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for her novel "The Land of Green Plums," she said, "I wrote this book in memory of my Romanian friends who were killed under the Ceausescu regime. I felt it was my duty."
"The Land of Green Plums" is one of only four of Müller's 19 books that have been translated into English. The most recent is "The Appointment," published in 2001. Chance are her work will now become more widely available. Although if last year's winner Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio is an indicator, it may be some time before that happens -- his novel "Desert" took about a year to hit shelves.
In addition to the honor, the Nobel Prize in Literature comes with a hefty financial reward: Herta Müller will receive $1.4 million.
-- Carolyn Kellogg
Photo: Jens Meyer / Associated Press

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