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eBook details
- Title: Ambiguity and Morality in Jelinek's Bambiland (Critical Essay)
- Author : CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
- Release Date : January 01, 2010
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 79 KB
Description
When, in 2004, Elfriede Jelinek was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, the reactions of both the German-speaking and the international press, as well as those of the literary establishment, were extremely divided. They ranged from utter surprise and incomprehension, through outrage to cautious approval, and--in some cases--enthusiasm (see, e.g., Bandhauer). The international reactions reflected the fact that Jelinek's work was--at least at the time of her award still largely unknown to the wider public in most parts of the world. This was so, even though a number of her novels and plays (especially the novels The Piano Teacher [Die Klavierspielerin], 1983 and Lust, 1989) had been translated into numerous languages, among them English, French, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese (see Jelinek http://www.elfriedejelinek.com ). Her best-known book, The Piano Teacher, was made into a film, directed by Michael Haneke and with Isabelle Huppert in the title role. The film was awarded three prizes at the Cannes festival in 2001. Jelinek's texts are not easily accessible and they have become even less so in her recent work: her intense preoccupation with the physicalities of language poses difficulties for translators, as well as for readers who are not acquainted with or in any way part of the linguistic, cultural, historical, and geographical background to her work. The language of her texts is characterized by experimentation with different linguistic codes such as High German and Austrian colloquialisms and a propensity for complex and ambiguous word plays. While the Nobel Prize Committee emphasized the fact that Jelinek was chosen for her artistic experimentation with language, "for her musical flow of voices and countervoices in novels and plays" (nobelprize.org http://www.nobelprize.org ), Jelinek's British publisher, Peter Ayrton of Serpent's Tail Press comments: "She's the voice of the avantgarde ... In a way it's a problem with the Nobel Prize. It provides a mass readership for writers who don't write for one" (Ayrton qtd. in Abbot 16). Jelinek's preoccupation with the politics and culture of her home country, Austria, and the difficulty of translating her linguistically complex texts might make some of the often outraged--astonishment about the decision of the Nobel Prize Committee understandable to some extent. However, the reactions of much of the German-speaking press were less readily comprehensible, as Jelinek has received consistently the highest accolades for her novels, as well as for her plays, especially in Germany. Since being awarded the Austrian State Scholarship for Literature (Osterreichisches Staatsstipendium fur Literatur) in 1972, she has won numerous prizes in Austria and Germany, among them the prestigious Heinrich-Boll-Preis in 1986, the Buchnerpreis in 1998 and the Heinrich-Heine-Preis in 2002, as well as the Berliner and Muhlheimer theater prizes in 2002. Her novels The Piano Teacher (1983), Lust (1989), and the play Bambiland (2004) were successful, the latter two becoming bestsellers. Her plays are performed in the most prestigious theaters and staged by prominent German directors such as Frank Castorf, Claus Peymann, Georg Tabori, Einar Schleef, and Christoph Schlingensief. In Austria, it is Jelinek herself who is at the center of the harsh criticism that often accompanies her career as a writer there (see also Lamb-Faffelberger 184). As a commentator on public life, she embodies the role of a constant critic who causes intentionally outrage by violating everything that is seen as sacrosanct within conservative, nationalistic, and rightwing circles. It is indeed her negativist ethical radicalism directed against Catholic as well fascist Austrian traditionalism, which attracts hostility.