Zu Herta Müllers Bildersprache
On Herta Müller's imagery

Summary/Abstract: Herta Müller creates unique word images, which impress us deeply. A known language creation is the Land of the Green Plums/ Herztier, which possibly harks back to Paul Celan's Glimmer animal / Flimmertier. Herztier (literally: animal of the heart) names an inner strength, which drives one forward, keeps one alive, and which, however, in the proper sense of the word has nothing in itself so far. The category of the heart, a magnitude for the human individual, falls victim to the collective machinations in the social field of the female protagonist. The name Herztier does not in any case confine itself to the naming function that is connected to the novel from the standpoint of the content. More than that, it keeps reoccurring across the text as something similar to a motive. The image title gains its significance gradually through intertextual intertwining with characters and events in the novel. As a blended idea-thing, the motive evinces a stark figurative quality.

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