2004: Nobel Prize in Literature for Elfriede Jelinek

The 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature for Elfriede Jelinek came as something of a surprise. Never before had an Austrian been awarded this prize, and prior to Jelinek only nine women had ever won it. The jury praised “the musical flow of voices and counter-voices” in the work of the author, who was born in 1946 in Mürzzuschlag and studied piano and composition in Vienna, as well as languages, theatre studies and art history. 

Elfriede Jelinek did not appear in person at the award ceremony because she feared being co-opted as “a feather in Austria’s cap”. Nevertheless, since winning the prize her work has gained more widespread recognition, for example through a staging of her novel Die Kinder der Toten (The Children of the Dead) as part of the 2017 steirischer herbst contemporary arts festival.