Writer, born in Mürzzuschlag, EC Austria. A feminist novelist, her books focus on the subordinate role of women in society and their economic and social dependence on men. In her earlier work, such as Michael. Ein Jugendbuch für die Infantilgesellschaft (1972), she used satire to expose the gap between media-inspired reality and ordinary life. She also writes poetry and plays for radio and stage. Her farce Burgtheater (1984) caused a scandal, and in 1996 a ban was imposed on her work being performed. In 1998 she was awarded the Georg-Büchner-Preis, and received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2004.
Elfriede Jelinek|
Elfriede Jelinek talking to anti-government protesters in Vienna, June 2000 |
|
| Born: |
October 20, 1946 (age 60) Mürzzuschlag, Styria, Austria |
|---|---|
| Occupation(s): | playwright, novelist |
| Nationality: | Austrian |
| Debut work(s): |
bukolit. hörroman (novel) Was geschah, nachdem Nora ihren Mann verlassen hatte (play) |
| Website: | |
Elfriede Jelinek (pronunciation in IPA: [ˀɛlˈfʀiːdɛ ˈjɛlinɛk];
Biography
Jelinek was born on 20 October 1946 in Mürzzuschlag, Styria, Austria. Jelinek also studied art history and drama at the University of Vienna. Critics have noted that Jelinek's biography is often reflected in her opus.
Jelinek started writing poetry young.
In the early 1970s, Jelinek married Gottfried Hüngsberg.
Work and politics
Prior to winning the Nobel Prize, her work was largely unknown outside the German-speaking world and was said to resemble that of acclaimed Austrian playwright Thomas Bernhard, with its pathology of destruction and its concomitant comedic abrogation. In fact, despite the author's own differentiation from Austria, Jelinek's writing is deeply rooted in the tradition of Austrian literature, showing the influence of Austrian writers such as Robert Musil.
Jelinek's political positions (in particular her feminist stance and her party affiliations) are of vital importance to any assessment of her work. They are also a part of the reason for the vitriolic controversy surrounding Jelinek and her work.
Brief history of Jelinek's political engagements
Jelinek was a member of Austria's Communist Party from 1974 to 1991. Jelinek became a household name during the 1990s due to her vociferous clash with Jörg Haider's Freedom Party. Following the 1999 National Council elections and the subsequent formation of a coalition cabinet consisting of the Freedom Party and the Austrian People's Party, Jelinek became one of the new cabinet's most vocal critics. This provoked a temporary heating of the political climate severe enough for dissidents such as Jelinek to be accused of treachery by coalition supporters.
Jelinek's work
Jelinek's work is multi-faceted and highly controversial. Despite the public controversy surrounding her work, Jelinek has won many distinguished prizes, among them are the Georg Büchner Prize in 1998;
Prevalent topics in her prose and dramatic works are female sexuality, its abuse and the war of the sexes in general. Texts such as Wir sind Lockvögel, Baby! (We are Decoys, Baby!), Die Liebhaberinnen (The Lovers) and Die Klavierspielerin (The Piano Player) showcase the brutality and power play inherent in human relations in a style that is at times ironically formal and tightly controlled. According to Jelinek, power and aggression are often the principal driving forces of relationships.
In her later work, Jelinek has somewhat abandoned female issues to focus her energy on social criticism in general and Austria's difficulties to owning up to its Nazi past in particular;
Her plays often involve an emphasis on choreography.
Jelinek's novel Die Klavierspielerin (The Piano Player) was filmed with title The Piano Teacher by Austrian director Michael Haneke, with French actress Isabelle Huppert as the protagonist.
In late April 2006, Jelinek stood up to protect Peter Handke, whose play Die Kunst des Fragens (The Art of Asking) was removed from the repertoire of Comedie Francaise for his alleged support of Slobodan Milosevic .
The Nobel Prize
Commenting on the Nobel Prize, she said she felt very happy to receive the Prize, but also felt despair: "despair for becoming a known, a person of the public".
Jelinek was criticized for not accepting the prize in person; Others appreciated that Jelinek openly disclosed that she suffers from agoraphobia and social phobia, anxiety disorders which can be highly disruptive to everyday functioning yet are often concealed by those affected out of shame or feeling of inadequacy. Jelinek has said that her anxiety disorders make it impossible for her even to go to the cinema or to board an airplane (in an interview she wished to be able to fly to New York to see the skyscrapers one day before dying), and she felt incapable of taking part in any ceremony.
In 2005, Knut Ahnlund left the Swedish Academy in protest, describing Jelinek's work as "whining, unenjoyable public pornography" as well as "a mass of text shoveled together without artistic structure"
User Comments Add a comment…