Abstract
Although European frontiers have often been sites of exchange and contact, their role in national and ideological division is a more pronounced feature of post-1945 continental arrangements. This essay explores the disciplinary function of borders via a study of Herta Müller’s Herztier (The Land of Green Plums, 1994). Set in late Cold War Romania, the novel dramatizes the manner in which the regime’s closed borders helped to shape the identity of the domestic population, conditioning not only public activity, but also the private realms of thought and emotion. As the essay points out, despite the dismantling of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Müller’s text retains its relevance to a ‘Fortress Europe’ still defined by national and ‘civilisational’ boundaries.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | The Novel and Europe: Imagining the Continent in Post-1945 Fiction |
| Editors | Andrew Hammond |
| Place of Publication | Basingstoke |
| Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
| Pages | 143-160 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781137526267 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2016 |
Publication series
| Name | Palgrave Studies in Modern European Literature |
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Bibliographical note
Cornis-Pope, Marcel & Hammond, Andrew, European Fiction on the Borders: The Case of Herta Müller, 2016, Palgrave Macmillan UK reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan. This extract is taken from the author's original manuscript and has not been edited. The definitive, published, version of record is available here: [insert URL for product on http://www.palgrave.com/la/book/9781137526267Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'European Fiction on the Borders: The Case of Herta Müller'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Profiles
-
Andrew Hammond
- School of Humanities - Senior Lecturer
- Centre for Memory, Narrative and Histories
Person: Academic