'SCHNAPS AUS DEN DUNKELSTEN PFLAUMEN': THE CORRUPTION OF NATURE AND THE CENTRALITY OF THE HOLOCAUST IN THE WORK OF HERTA MuLLER

Herta Muller's work is permeated with images of death and violence associated with the natural world. Plants, processes of growth and decay, and even the earth itself are represented as sentient and threatening, as collaborators with the Ceausescu regime and enemies of humanity. This trope, part of a wider denaturalisation of food, eating, and the natural cycle I term 'obscene consumption', is particularly evident in the novel Herztier, first published in 1994, but can be traced back through earlier works to the author's first and most enduring artistic preoccupation: the Holocaust. Building on theories of the concentrationary imaginary and Lazarean art, this article explores the role of cultural memory in the creation of Muller's imagery and argues for a re-evaluation of her writing as a significant contribution to the literature of post-fascism both within and beyond Germany.