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Affective Affinities: Memory, Empathy and the Weight of History in the Work of Herta Müller / Jennifer R. Watson

Swansea University Author: Jennifer R. Watson

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DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUthesis.40654

Abstract

Herta Müller’s writing forms a densely interwoven body of work that merges fiction, autobiography and political commentary. Previous analyses have failed to develop a critical framework that encompasses her self-consciously difficult texts’ forms, contents, intents and impacts. This project was desi...

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Published: 2017
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Doctoral
Degree name: Ph.D
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40654
first_indexed 2018-06-07T13:40:24Z
last_indexed 2025-04-05T03:25:34Z
id cronfa40654
recordtype RisThesis
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spelling 2025-04-04T14:07:21.6408265 v2 40654 2018-06-07 Affective Affinities: Memory, Empathy and the Weight of History in the Work of Herta Müller 78ff0ab13cdbb486c9f3ea4995948549 NULL Jennifer R. Watson Jennifer R. Watson true true 2018-06-07 Herta Müller’s writing forms a densely interwoven body of work that merges fiction, autobiography and political commentary. Previous analyses have failed to develop a critical framework that encompasses her self-consciously difficult texts’ forms, contents, intents and impacts. This project was designed to test the potential of recent theories of memory (notably the work of Alison Landsberg, Michael Rothberg and Griselda Pollock and Max Silverman) as a critical framework for interpreting Müller’s work. The imageworlds and affective resonances of texts such as Niederungen (1982), Herztier (1994) and Atemschaukel (2009) allow specific histories of National Socialism, Romanian Communism and Stalin-era forced labour to stand for something larger: all the suffering of history’s unknown Others, all the mental and physical violence human beings perpetrate on one another. Müller’s approach to memory is orientated around the possibility that attention to the past and to our shared vulnerability can mobilise ethical engagement. Her texts rework memory as a route towards imagination and empathetic engagement, not a mere imitation of history, bound to facts. She prioritises “authenticity” – meaning larger structures of experience – over reality or specificity. Pushing her reader to attend to memories which are not their own, and engage with patterns of perception that uncover a common humanity, her work represents specific experiences but presents them as iterations. Thus memory alludes to the present and demands action. Empathy is Müller’s ultimate concern: memory serves to foster ethical engagement. My critical framework captures the way her writing exploits universal experiences of memory and historically located subjectivity, encompassing core elements of her themes and aesthetics and offering a new perspective on her work. Affective Affinities represents a first step in holistic readings of Müller and reframes memory as the engine rather than the fuel of her ethical and literary projects. E-Thesis German literature, memory studies, trauma, Romanian-German studies 7 6 2017 2017-06-07 10.23889/SUthesis.40654 COLLEGE NANME Modern Languages, Translation and Interpreting COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Doctoral Ph.D Swansea University Not Required 2025-04-04T14:07:21.6408265 2018-06-07T10:09:52.1102877 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Culture and Communication - Modern Languages, Translation, and Interpreting Jennifer R. Watson NULL 1 40654__9217__a7ed1b1c0f7e40589f2aa90503adffc4.pdf Watson_Jenny_PhD_2018.pdf 2018-06-07T10:13:25.2400000 Output 1975710 application/pdf E-Thesis – open access true 2022-07-05T00:00:00.0000000 Copyright: The Author, Jennifer R. Watson, 2017. true eng
title Affective Affinities: Memory, Empathy and the Weight of History in the Work of Herta Müller
spellingShingle Affective Affinities: Memory, Empathy and the Weight of History in the Work of Herta Müller
Jennifer R. Watson
title_short Affective Affinities: Memory, Empathy and the Weight of History in the Work of Herta Müller
title_full Affective Affinities: Memory, Empathy and the Weight of History in the Work of Herta Müller
title_fullStr Affective Affinities: Memory, Empathy and the Weight of History in the Work of Herta Müller
title_full_unstemmed Affective Affinities: Memory, Empathy and the Weight of History in the Work of Herta Müller
title_sort Affective Affinities: Memory, Empathy and the Weight of History in the Work of Herta Müller
author_id_str_mv 78ff0ab13cdbb486c9f3ea4995948549
author_id_fullname_str_mv 78ff0ab13cdbb486c9f3ea4995948549_***_Jennifer R. Watson
author Jennifer R. Watson
author2 Jennifer R. Watson
format E-Thesis
publishDate 2017
institution Swansea University
doi_str_mv 10.23889/SUthesis.40654
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Culture and Communication - Modern Languages, Translation, and Interpreting{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Culture and Communication - Modern Languages, Translation, and Interpreting
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description Herta Müller’s writing forms a densely interwoven body of work that merges fiction, autobiography and political commentary. Previous analyses have failed to develop a critical framework that encompasses her self-consciously difficult texts’ forms, contents, intents and impacts. This project was designed to test the potential of recent theories of memory (notably the work of Alison Landsberg, Michael Rothberg and Griselda Pollock and Max Silverman) as a critical framework for interpreting Müller’s work. The imageworlds and affective resonances of texts such as Niederungen (1982), Herztier (1994) and Atemschaukel (2009) allow specific histories of National Socialism, Romanian Communism and Stalin-era forced labour to stand for something larger: all the suffering of history’s unknown Others, all the mental and physical violence human beings perpetrate on one another. Müller’s approach to memory is orientated around the possibility that attention to the past and to our shared vulnerability can mobilise ethical engagement. Her texts rework memory as a route towards imagination and empathetic engagement, not a mere imitation of history, bound to facts. She prioritises “authenticity” – meaning larger structures of experience – over reality or specificity. Pushing her reader to attend to memories which are not their own, and engage with patterns of perception that uncover a common humanity, her work represents specific experiences but presents them as iterations. Thus memory alludes to the present and demands action. Empathy is Müller’s ultimate concern: memory serves to foster ethical engagement. My critical framework captures the way her writing exploits universal experiences of memory and historically located subjectivity, encompassing core elements of her themes and aesthetics and offering a new perspective on her work. Affective Affinities represents a first step in holistic readings of Müller and reframes memory as the engine rather than the fuel of her ethical and literary projects.
published_date 2017-06-07T04:22:26Z
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score 11.1007595

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