Migratory traces and cultural translation in the essayistic work of Herta Müller and Yoko Tawada

Abstract

This article points out traces of migration and cultural translation in some literary essays by the writers Herta Müller and Yoko Tawada, from the perspective of their immigration status in Germany. The first, a Romanian-German writer, always wrote in German, though she was born and lived in Romania for thirty-three years. The second, a Japanese one, based in Germany since her twenty-second year of age, writes in Japanese and in German. This paper also analyses what is Romanian or Romanian- German in the texts of Müller and considers to which extent a constant negotiation happens between cultures through which she comes across. Similarly, it is investigated how Tawada moves along Japanese and German cultures and how she advocates, in her work, for more fluidity and a reduction of rigid boundaries between languages and cultures.