Elfriede Jelinek

Elfriede Jelinek (; 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 the 2004 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". She is considered to be among the most important living playwrights of the German language.

Biography Elfriede Jelinek was born on 20 October 1946 in Mürzzuschlag, Styria, Austria, the daughter of Olga Ilona (née Buchner), a personnel director, and Friedrich Jelinek. Her mother's family was of a bourgeois background, while her father was a working-class socialist.

Her father was a chemist, who managed to avoid persecution during the Second World War by working in strategically important industrial production. However, many of his relatives became victims of the Holocaust. Her mother, with whom she had a strained relationship, was from a formerly prosperous Vienna family. At the age of six, Jelinek was a patient of Hans Asperger, which she later described as "a crime [...] Instead of sending me out to play in the company of kids my age, my mother sent me into the company of severe neurotics and psychopaths." In 1995, she stated that she was "ot an Asperger autistic, though indeed not far off." As a child, she 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 the Vienna 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. She began writing poetry at a young age. She made her literary debut with Lisas 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".

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 of Tale of Two Cities in the Dickensian sense. I've always commuted between Vienna and Munich. 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.

Editor Friederike Eigler states that Jelinek has three major and inter-related "targets" in her writing: what she views as capitalist consumer society and its commodification 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 systematic exploitation and oppression of women in a capitalist-patriarchal society. Jelinek has claimed in multiple interviews that the Austrian-Jewish satirical tradition has been a formative influence on her writing, citing Karl Kraus, Elias Canetti, and Jewish cabaret in particular. In an interview with Sigrid 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. In 2024, Jelinek signed an open letter denouncing the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.

Work 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. Jelinek's work is multi-faceted, and highly controversial. It has been praised and condemned by leading literary critics. In the wake of the Fritzl case, for example, she was accused of "executing 'hysterical' portraits of Austrian perversity". 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 the Georg Büchner Prize in 1998; the Mülheim Dramatists Prize in 2002 and 2004; the Franz Kafka Prize in 2004; and the Nobel Prize in Literature, also in 2004. Her provocative novel Lust 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.

In April 2006, Jelinek spoke out to support Peter Handke, whose play Die Kunst des Fragens (The Art of Asking) was removed from the repertoire of the Comédie-Française for his alleged support of Slobodan Milošević. Her work is less known in English-speaking countries. However, in July and August 2012, a major English language premiere of her play Ein Sportstück by Just a Must theatre company brought her dramatic work to the attention of English-speaking audiences. The following year, in February and March 2013, the Women's Project in New York staged the North American premiere of Jackie, one of her Princess Dramas.

Political engagement Jelinek was a member of Austria's Communist Party from 1974 to 1991. She 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 more vocal critics.

Many foreign governments moved swiftly to ostracize Austria's administration, citing the Freedom Party's alleged nationalism and authoritarianism. 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.

This provoked a temporary heating of the political climate severe enough for dissidents such as Jelinek to be accused of treason by coalition supporters. On her website, Jelinek also stated that she feared "ethnic cleansing" in the region because "where the land is lacking, people themselves become meaningless".

Awards and honors 1996: Literaturpreis der Stadt Bremen for Die Kinder der Toten 1998: Georg Büchner Prize 2002: Mülheimer Dramatikerpreis for Macht Nichts 2004: Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden for Jackie 2004: Franz Kafka Prize 2004: Nobel Prize in Literature 2004: Stig Dagerman Prize 2004: Mülheimer Dramatikerpreis for Das Werk 2011: Mülheimer Dramatikerpreis for Winterreise 2011: Honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters rein GOLD. ein bühnenessay (Rowohlt, 2013). rein GOLD, trans. Gitta Honegger (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2021).

Plays Was geschah, nachdem Nora ihren Mann verlassen hatte; oder Stützen der Gesellschaften (1979). What Happened after Nora Left Her Husband; or Pillars of Society. Premiered at Graz, October 1979. Clara S, musikalische Tragödie (1982). Clara S, a Musical Tragedy. Premiered at Bonn, 1982. Krankheit oder Moderne Frauen. Wie ein Stück (1984). Illness or Modern Women. Like a Play. Premiered at Bonn, 1987. Burgtheater. Posse mit Gesang (1985). Burgtheater. Farce with Songs. Premiered at Bonn, 1985. 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. Totenauberg (1992). Premiered at Burgtheater (Akademietheater), 1992. Raststätte oder Sie machens alle. Eine Komödie (1994). Service Area or They're All Doing It. A Comedy. Premiered at Burgtheater, 1994. Stecken, Stab und Stangl. Eine Handarbeit (1996). Rod, Staff, and Crook – Handmade. Premiered at Deutsches Schauspielhaus, 1996. Ein Sportstück (1998). Sports Play, trans. Penny Black (Oberon Books, 2012). Premiered at Burgtheater, 1998; English-language premiere in Lancaster, 11 July 2012. Also translated by Lillian Banks as Sports Chorus for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow. Premiered at Burgtheater, 2003. Irm und Margit A part of "Attabambi Pornoland" (2004). Premiered at Schauspielhaus Zürich, 2004. Ulrike Maria Stuart (2006). Premiered at Thalia Theater, 2006. Über Tiere (2006). Rechnitz (Der Würgeengel) (2008). Rechnitz (The Exterminating Angel). Die Kontrakte des Kaufmanns. Eine Wirtschaftskomödie (2009). The Merchant's Contracts. Das Werk / Im Bus / Ein Sturz (2010). Premiered at Schauspiel Köln, 2010. Winterreise (2011). Premiered at Munich Kammerspiele, 2011. Kein Licht (2011). Premiered at Schauspiel Köln, 2011 FaustIn and out (2011). Premiered at Schauspielhaus Zürich, 2012. Die Straße. Die Stadt. Der Überfall (2012). Premiered at Munich Kammerspiele, 2012. Schatten (Eurydike sagt) (2013). Shadow. Eurydice Says, trans. Gitta Honegger (2017). Premiered at Burgtheater, 2013. Aber sicher! (2013). Premiered at Theater Bremen, 2013. 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. Asche (2024). Premiered at Münich, 26 April 2024. Endsieg (2025).

Opera librettos Lost Highway (2003), adapted from the 1997 film by David Lynch, with music by Olga Neuwirth Monster's Paradise (2026), music by Olga Neuwirth

Translations Die Enden der Parabel (Gravity's Rainbow), novel by Thomas Pynchon; 1976 Herrenjagd, drama by Georges Feydeau; 1983 Floh im Ohr, drama by Georges Feydeau; 1986 Der Gockel, drama by Georges Feydeau; 1986 Die Affaire Rue de Lourcine, drama by Eugène Labiche; 1988 Die Dame vom Maxim, drama by Georges Feydeau; 1990 Der Jude von Malta (The Jew of Malta), drama by Christopher Marlowe; 2001 Ernst sein ist alles (The Importance of Being Earnest), drama by Oscar Wilde; 2004 Der ideale Mann (An Ideal Husband), drama by Oscar Wilde; 2011 Poetry and short stories from Latin American authors

Jelinek's works in English translation The Piano Teacher, trans. Joachim Neugroschel (New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988). . Wonderful, Wonderful Times, trans. Michael Hulse (London: Serpent's Tail, 1990). . Lust, trans. Michael Hulse (London: Serpent's Tail, 1992). . Women as Lovers, trans. Martin Chalmers (London: Serpent's Tail, 1994). . Greed, trans. Martin Chalmers (London: Serpent's Tail, 2006). . Bambiland, trans. Lilian Friedberg (2009), in Theater 39.3, pp. 111–143. Her Not All Her: On/With Robert Walser, trans. Damion Searls (Sylph Editions, 2012). Sports Play, trans. Penny Black (Oberon Books, 2012). Sports Chorus, trans. Lilian Banks (2012), in Sport in Art, commissioned by Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków. Rechnitz and The Merchant's Contracts, trans. Gitta Honegger (Seagull Books, 2015). . Charges (The Supplicants), trans. Gitta Honegger (Seagull Books, 2016). . Three Plays: Rechnitz, The Merchant's Contracts, Charges (The Supplicants), trans. Gitta Honegger (Seagull Books, 2019). On the Royal Road: The Burgher King, trans. Gitta Honegger (Seagull Books, 2020). rein GOLD, trans. Gitta Honegger (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2021). The Children of the Dead, trans. Gitta Honegger (Yale, 2024). Screeds, trans. Gitta Honegger (New Directions, 2026). Compilation of two plays: On the Royal Road and Endsieg: The Second Coming.

In popular culture Her novel The Piano Teacher was the basis for the 2001 film of the same title by Austrian director Michael Haneke, starring Isabelle Huppert as the protagonist.

In 2022, a documentary about Jelinek was created by Claudia Müller, Elfriede Jelinek – Language Unleashed (German: Elfriede Jelinek – Die Sprache von der Leine lassen).