Elfriede Jelinek (Mürzzuschlag, Austria, 1946) is sometimes called the enfant terrible of Austrian literature: her work is controversial and often provocative. With her phenomenal use of language, she fiercely criticises modern consumer society, revealing its underlying power structures. She was awarded the Nobel prize for 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.’ Or, as Jelinek herself says: ‘I tap on language to hear the hidden ideologies, like a doctor taps on a patient’s chest.’
photo: © Karin Rocholl
Training
Starting 1960, organ, recorder and composition at the Wiener Konservatorium
Starting 1964, theatre and art history at Universität Wien (uncompleted)
Major work
1975 Die Liebhaberinnen
1980 Die Ausgesperrten
1983 Die Klavierspielerin (made into a film in 2001: La Pianiste by Michael Haneke with Isabelle Huppert in the leading role)
1985 Burgtheater
1989 Lust
2005 Babel
2006 Ulrike Maria Stuart
2011 Winterreise
2013 Schatten (Euridyke sagt)
2017 Am Königsweg
2020 Schwarzwasser
Previously featured at the Holland Festival
2008 Babel (Burgtheater)
2010 Rechnitz (Münchner Kammerspiele)
2014
Die Schutzbefohlenen (Thalia Theater, directed by Nicolas Stemann)
Prizes and awards, including
1972/1973 Östereichischer Würdigungspreis für Literatur
1989 Preis der Stadt Wien für Literatur
1994 Walter Hasenclever-Preis from the city of Bochum
1996 Bremer Literaturpreis for Die Kinder der Toten
2004 Nobel prize for Literature