Nobel Prize for Literature Awarded to Austrian Author Elfriede Jelinek

Austrian Writer Elfriede Jelinek

On Thursday, October 7, Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek was named the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2004. In announcing the award, the Swedish Academy commended the author "for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society's cliches and their subjugating power."

Jelinek was born on October 20, 1946, in the town of Murzzuschlag in the Austrian province of Styria. Her literary debut, the collection Lisas Schatten, was published in 1967. "Through contact with the student movement, her writing took a socially critical direction," the Academy cited. "In 1970 came her satirical novel wir sind lockvogel baby! (We Are Decoys, Baby!). In common with her next novel, Michael: Ein Jugendbuch fur die Infantilgesellschaft (1972), it had a character of linguistic rebellion, aimed at popular culture and its mendacious presentation of the good life."

In the 1970s and '80s, she earned fame in Germany with her novels Die Liebhaberinnen (Women as Lovers), Die Ausgesperrten (Wonderful, Wonderful Times), and the autobiographically based Die Klavierspielerin (The Piano Teacher). The Piano Teacher was adapted into film by Michael Haneke in 2001. "These novels, each within the framework of its own problem complex, present a pitiless world where the reader is confronted with a locked-down regime of violence and submission, hunter and prey," the Academy noted.

"Jelinek is a highly controversial figure in her homeland, Her writing builds on a lengthy Austrian tradition of linguistically sophisticated social criticism, with precursors such as Johann Nepomuk Nestroy, Karl Kraus, Odon von Horvath, Elias Canetti, Thomas Bernhard, and the Wiener Group."

Jelinek is the ninth woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature since it was first awarded in 1901, according to CNN.com. It carries a monetary award of $1.3 million.

Jelinek's works in English, which are distributed by Consortium Sales & Distribution, include:

The Piano Teacher: a novel / translated from the German by Joachim Neugroschel (Serpent's Tail) -- Translation of Die Klavierspielerin

Wonderful, Wonderful Times: a novel / translated by Michael Hulse (Serpent's Tail) -- Translation of Die Ausgesperrten

Lust: a novel / translated by Michael Hulse (Serpent's Tail) -- Translation of Lust

Women as Lovers: a novel / translated by Martin Chalmers (Serpent's Tail) -- Translation of Die Liebhaberinnen