Elfriede Jelinek

Austrian playwright and novelist · Austria · Writers · Born 1946 · age 79

Elfriede Jelinek is read about 787 times a day, in 105 languages.

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She dissects language itself as ideology, peeling back the clichés that organize power and submission. The Nobel committee called it a "musical flow of voices and counter-voices" - but her plays and novels don't comfort; they expose how we talk ourselves into compliance.

Writers Writer / Author Literature Theatre Screenwriting Poetry Fiction Austria

A life in dates

2024Commandeur des Arts et des LettresAwardGrand Cross of Honor for Services to the Republic of AustriaAward2023Honorary Citizen of ViennaAward2021Nestroy theater award/lifetime achievementAward2004Franz Kafka PrizeAwardNobel Prize in LiteratureAward2002Heinrich Heine PrizeAward2000Manuskripte AwardAward1996Literaturpreis der Stadt BremenAward1994Walter-Hasenclever-Preis der Stadt AachenAward1989City of Vienna Literature PrizeAward1988“For the first thing a proprietor learns, and painfully at that, is: Trust is fine, but control is better.”In their wordsP 5Read the whole statement

“Every child instinctively heads toward dirt and filth unless you pull it back.”In their wordsP 24Read the whole statement

“Of course, art turns many people away for there has to be a limit. The limits between the gifted and the ungifted.”In their wordsP 27Read the whole statement

“There are no holidays for art; and that’s just fine with the artist.”In their wordsP 29Read the whole statement

“Just keep following my tears, and the brook will take you in.”In their wordsp 44Read the whole statement

“After all, people with a herd instinct hold mediocrity in high esteem. They praise it as having great value. They believe they are strong because they are the majority.”In their wordsP 66Read the whole statement

1987Literaturpreis des Landes SteiermarkAward1983Österreichischer Kunstpreis für LiteraturAward1978Roswitha PrizeAward1946Born20 October 1946

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Elfriede jelinek 2004 small

2015-05-09 Jelinek-Zitat Ebensee KZ-Gedenkort 1

Elfriede jelinek 2004 small (cropped)

Elfriede jelinek 2004 small cropped

Nikolaus Habjan mit Elfriede-Jelinek-Handpuppe und Sunnyi Melles - Nestroy-Theaterpreis 2013 a

Nikolaus Habjan mit Elfriede-Jelinek-Handpuppe und Sunnyi Melles - Nestroy-Theaterpreis 2013 b

Schauspielhaus Graz-msu-2024-3490

Ursula Stock, 452

In their own words 10

Elfriede Jelinek

10 statements, newest first

For the first thing a proprietor learns, and painfully at that, is: Trust is fine, but control is better.
1988, P 5, Own words
Sometimes, of course, art creates the suffering in the first place.
1988, P 23, Own words
Every child instinctively heads toward dirt and filth unless you pull it back.
1988, P 24, Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

Awards

Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres2024

Grand Cross of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria2024

Honorary Citizen of Vienna2023

Ring of Honour of the Austrian state Styria2023

Nestroy theater award/lifetime achievement2021

Nobel Prize in Literature2004

Franz Kafka Prize2004

Stig Dagerman Prize2004

Mülheimer Dramatikerpreis2002

Heinrich Heine Prize2002

Manuskripte Award2000

Georg Büchner Prize1998

Literaturpreis der Stadt Bremen1996

Walter-Hasenclever-Preis der Stadt Aachen1994

Peter-Weiss Prize1994

City of Vienna Literature Prize1989

Literaturpreis des Landes Steiermark1987

Heinrich-Böll-Preis1986

Österreichischer Kunstpreis für Literatur1983

Roswitha Prize1978

Family

Father Friedrich Jelinek

Elfriede Jelinek

Partners

Spouse Gottfried Hüngsberg

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About this person

Elfriede Jelinek was born on 20 October 1946 in Austria, and she built a career dismantling the inherited phrases of German-speaking culture. Her novels and plays trace the way social scripts - about gender, authority, desire - become instruments of control, and she does it through a prose style the Nobel Prize judges in 2004 described as possessing "extraordinary linguistic zeal" that reveals "the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power". The prize made official what the theater world already knew: she is among the most important living playwrights writing in German. She remains one of the most decorated authors in the language, though her work offers no easy reconciliation - only the stark mechanics of how power speaks.

Country

Austria

In common with Elfriede

Eva GreenAlso in The Piano Teacher (2001)

Marina AbramovićAlso in Valie Export - Icon and Rebel (2015)

Mathieu CarrièreAlso in Malina (1991)

Johanna WokalekAlso in Women as Lovers (2026)

Ulrich SeidlAlso in The Children of the Dead (2019)

Christine KaufmannAlso in The Excluded (1982)

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