Elfriede Jelinek (German:[ɛlˈfʁiːdəˈjɛlinɛk]; born 20 October 1946) is an Austrian playwright and novelist. She is one of the most decorated authors to write in German and was awarded the2004 Nobel Prize in Literature for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that, with extraordinary linguistic zeal, reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power".[2] She is considered to be among the most important living playwrights of the German language.[3]
Her father was achemist, who managed to avoid persecution during theSecond World War by working in strategically important industrial production. However, many of his relatives became victims of theHolocaust. Her mother, with whom she had a strained relationship, was from a formerly prosperous Vienna family. As a child, Elfriede attended a Roman Catholic convent school in Vienna. Her mother planned a career for her as a musical "Wunderkind". She was instructed in piano, organ, guitar, violin,viola, and recorder from an early age. Later, she went on to study at theVienna Conservatory, where she graduated with an organist diploma; during this time, she tried to meet her mother's high expectations, while coping with her psychologically ill father.[9] She studiedart history and theater at theUniversity of Vienna. However, she had to discontinue her studies due to ananxiety disorder, which resulted in self-isolation at her parents' house for a year. During this time, she began serious literary work as a form of therapy. After a year, she began to feel comfortable leaving the house, often with her mother.[9] She began writing poetry at a young age. She made her literary debut withLisas Schatten (Lisa's Shadow) in 1967, and received her first literary prize in 1969. During the 1960s, she became active politically, read a great deal, and "spent an enormous amount of time watching television".[9]
She married Gottfried Hüngsberg on 12 June 1974.[10][11]
I was 27; he was 29. I knew enough men. Sexuality was, strangely, the only area where I emancipated myself early on. Our marriage takes place in two cities. It's a kind ofTale of Two Cities in theDickensian sense. I've always commuted between Vienna andMunich. Vienna is where I've always lived because my friends are here and because I've never wanted to leave Vienna. In the end I've been caught up here. Munich is my husband's city and so I've always traveled to and from, and that's been good for our marriage.[10]
Despite the author's own differentiation from Austria (due to her criticism of Austria's Nazi past), Jelinek's writing is deeply rooted in the tradition ofAustrian literature, showing the influence of Austrian writers such asIngeborg Bachmann,Marlen Haushofer, andRobert Musil.[12]
Editor Friederike Eigler states that Jelinek has three major and inter-related "targets" in her writing: what she views as capitalist consumer society and itscommodification of all human beings and relationships, what she views as the remnants of Austria's fascist past in public and private life, and what she views as the systematicexploitation and oppression of women in a capitalist-patriarchal society.[13] Jelinek has claimed in multiple interviews that the Austrian-Jewishsatirical tradition has been a formative influence on her writing, citingKarl Kraus,Elias Canetti, and Jewish cabaret in particular. In an interview withSigrid Löffler, Jelinek claimed that her work is considered an oddity in contemporary Austria, where she claims satire is unappreciated and misunderstood, "because the Jews are dead." She has stressed her Jewish identity as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, claiming a continuity with a Jewish-Viennese tradition that she believes has been destroyed by fascism and is dying out.[14][15][16] In 2024, Jelinek signed an open letter denouncing thePalestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.[17]
Jelinek's output has included radio plays, poetry, theatre texts, polemical essays, anthologies, novels, translations, screenplays, musical compositions, libretti and ballets, film and video art.[18]Jelinek's work is multi-faceted, and highly controversial. It has been praised and condemned by leadingliterary critics.[19] In the wake of theFritzl case, for example, she was accused of "executing 'hysterical' portraits of Austrian perversity".[20] Likewise, her political activism has encountered divergent and often heated reactions. Despite the controversy surrounding her work, Jelinek has won many distinguished awards; among them are theGeorg Büchner Prize in 1998; theMülheim Dramatists Prize in 2002 and 2004; theFranz Kafka Prize in 2004; and theNobel Prize in Literature, also in 2004.[19]
Female sexuality, sexual abuse, and the battle of the sexes in general are prominent topics in her work. Texts such asWir sind Lockvögel, Baby! (We are Decoys, Baby!),Die Liebhaberinnen (Women as Lovers) andDie Klavierspielerin (The Piano Teacher) 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 ofrelationships. LikewiseEin Sportstück (Sports Play) explores the darker side of competitive sports.[21] Her provocative novelLust contains graphic description of sexuality, aggression and abuse. It received poor reviews by many critics, some of whom likened it to pornography. But others, who noted the power of the cold descriptions of moral failures, considered it to have been misunderstood and undervalued by them.[19]
Incidentally, on 11 October 2005, just a few days before the announcement of the 2005 Nobel laureate for literature,Knut Ahnlund, a member of theSwedish Academy, which chooses the laureates for the Nobel Prize in Literature, declared that he would leave the Academy in protest over the prize the previous year being given to Jelinek, whose work Ahnlund characterized as chaotic and pornographic.[22]
In April 2006, Jelinek spoke out to supportPeter Handke, whose playDie Kunst des Fragens (The Art of Asking) was removed from the repertoire of theComédie-Française for his alleged support ofSlobodan Milošević. Her work is less known in English-speaking countries. However, in July and August 2012, a major English language premiere of her playEin Sportstück by Just a Must theatre company brought her dramatic work to the attention of English-speaking audiences.[23][24][25] The following year, in February and March 2013, the Women's Project in New York staged the North American premiere ofJackie, one of herPrincess Dramas.[26]
Jelinek was a member of Austria'sCommunist Party from 1974 to 1991. She became a household name during the 1990s due to her vociferous clash withJörg Haider'sFreedom Party.[27] Following the 1999National Council elections, and the subsequent formation of a coalition cabinet consisting of the Freedom Party and theAustrian People's Party, Jelinek became one of the new cabinet's more vocal critics.[28]
Many foreign governments moved swiftly to ostracize Austria's administration, citing the Freedom Party's alleged nationalism and authoritarianism.[29][30] The cabinet construed the sanctions against it as directed against Austria as such, and attempted to prod the nation into a national rallying (Nationaler Schulterschluss) behind the coalition parties.[31][32]
This provoked a temporary heating of the political climate severe enough for dissidents such as Jelinek to be accused oftreason by coalition supporters.[29][30]
Begierde und Fahrererlaubnis (eine Pornographie) (1986).Desire and Permission to Drive – Pornography. Premiered at the Styrian Autumn, Graz, 1986.
Wolken. Heim (1988).Clouds. Home. Premiered at Bonn, 1988.
Präsident Abendwind. Ein Dramolett, sehr frei nach Johann Nestroy (1992).President Abendwind. A dramolet, very freely after Johann Nestroy. Premiered at Tyrol Landestheater,Innsbruck, 1992.
Raststätte oder Sie machens alle. Eine Komödie (1994).Service Area or They're All Doing It. A Comedy. Premiered atBurgtheater, 1994.
Stecken, Stab und Stangl. Eine Handarbeit (1996).Rod, Staff, and Crook – Handmade. Premiered atDeutsches Schauspielhaus, 1996.
Ein Sportstück (1998).Sports Play, trans. Penny Black (Oberon Books, 2012). Premiered atBurgtheater, 1998; English-language premiere in Lancaster, 11 July 2012. Also translated by Lillian Banks asSports Chorus for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow.[43]
Prinzessinnendramen: Der Tod und das Mädchen I-III und IV-V (2002).Princess Dramas: Death and the Maiden I-III and IV-V. Parts I-III premiered atDeutsches Schauspielhaus, 2002; Parts IV-V premiered atDeutsches Theater, 2002.
Die Schutzbefohlenen (2013).Charges (The Supplicants), trans. Gitta Honegger (Seagull Books, 2016). First read at Hamburg, 2013; first produced at Mannheim, 23 May 2014.
Das schweigende Mädchen (2014). Premiered at Munich, 27 September 2014.
Wut (2016).Fury, trans. Gitta Honegger (Seagull Books, 2022). Premiered at Munich, 16 April 2016.
Am Königsweg (2017).On the Royal Road: The Burgher King, trans. Gitta Honegger (Seagull Books, 2020). Premiered at Hamburg, 28 October 2017.
Schnee Weiss (2018). Premiered at Cologne, 21 December 2018.
Schwarzwasser (2020). Premiered at Vienna, 6 February 2020.
Sonne, los jetzt! (2022). Premiered at Zürich, 15 December 2022.
Angabe der Person (2022). Premiered at Berlin, 17 December 2022.
Sonne / Luft (2022). Premiered at Zürich, 15 December 2022.
In 2022, a documentary about Jelinek was created by Claudia Müller,Elfriede Jelinek – Language Unleashed (German:Elfriede Jelinek – Die Sprache von der Leine lassen).[49]
^Honegger, Gitta (2006). "How to Get the Nobel Prize Without Really Trying".Theater.36 (2):5–19.doi:10.1215/01610775-36-2-4.
^Eigler, Friederike (1997), "Jelinek, Elfriede", in Eigler, Friederike (ed.),The Feminist Encyclopedia of German Literature, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, pp. 263–4
^Kremer, S. Lillian (2003).Holocaust Literature: Agosín to Lentin. New York City: Routledge. p. 590.ISBN978-0-415-92983-7.
^Dagmar C. G. Lorenz (2007).Keepers of the Motherland: German texts by Jewish women writers. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 251–252.ISBN978-0-8032-2917-4.Jewish women's writing likewise employs satirical and grotesque elements when depicting non-Jews... Some do so pointedly, such as Ilse Aichinger, Elfriede Gerstl, and Elifriede Jelinek... Jelinek resumed the techniques of the Jewish interwar satirists... Jelinek stresses her affinity to Karl Krauss and the Jewish Cabaret of the interwar era... She claims her own Jewish identity as the daughter of a Holocaust victim, her father, thereby suggesting that there is a continuity of Vienna's Jewish tradition (Berka 1993, 137f.; Gilman 1995, 3).
^Piekarska, Delfina (2012).Sport w sztuce : Sport in art (in Polish and English). Kraków: Muzeum Sztuki Współczesnej w Krakowie.ISBN978-83-62435-64-7.OCLC815593405.
Bethman, Brenda. 'Obscene Fantasies': Elfriede Jelinek's Generic Perversions. New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2011;ISBN978-1-4331-1060-3
Fiddler, Allyson.Rewriting Reality: An Introduction to Elfriede Jelinek. Oxford: Berg, 1994;ISBN978-0-8549-6776-6
Gérard Thiériot (dir.).Elfriede Jelinek et le devenir du drame, Toulouse, Presses universitaires du Mirail, 2006;ISBN978-2-85816-869-9
Flitner, Bettina.Frauen mit Visionen – 48 Europäerinnen (Women with Visions – 48 Europeans). With texts byAlice Schwarzer. Munich: Knesebeck, 2004;ISBN978-3-89660-211-4, 122–125 p.
Konzett, Matthias.The Rhetoric of National Dissent in Thomas Bernhard, Peter Handke, and Elfriede Jelinek. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2000;ISBN978-1-57113-204-8
Lamb-Faffelberger, Margarete and Matthias Konzett, editors.Elfriede Jelinek: Writing Woman, Nation, and Identity—A Critical Anthology. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2007;ISBN978-1611473704
Rosellini, Jay. "Haider, Jelinek, and the Austrian Culture Wars". CreateSpace.com, 2009.ISBN978-1-4421-4214-5.
