Erika kohut is a piano teacher at the prestigious and formal vienna conservatory, who still lives with her domineering and possessive mother. The piano teacher, the most famous novel of elfriede jelinek, who was awarded the 2004 nobel prize in literature, is a shocking, searing, aching portrait of a woman bound between a repressive society and her darkest desires. Especially since the heroine of the novel has rather unusual preferences. Her first book, lisas schatten 1967, lisas shadow, was a collection of poems. A novel jelinek, elfriede, neugroschel, joachim on. Translated by joachim neugroschel, it was the first of jelinek s novels to be translated into english. The piano teacher, erika kohut, bursts like a whirlwind into the apartment she.
Sigmund freud said sexual repression is at the root of most human problems. From 1960 jelinek studied piano and organ at the famous music conservatory. In the story erika kohut, a piano teacher, lives with her tyrannical mother with. The most popular work from provocative austrian nobel laureate elfriede jelinek, the piano teacher is a searing portrait of a woman bound between a repressive society and her darkest desires. Set in hong kong, it is easy to follow these jumps from from one era back and forth to the other. A novel elfriede jelinek, joachim neugroschel isbn. This book switches between the the early 1940s and the early 1950s. Elfriede jelinek is an austrian playwright and novelist. Theres no lack of problems in elfriede jelineks novel the piano teacher. The piano teacher is compelling fiction, ensnaring the reader with the intensity of. It tells the story of an unmarried piano teacher at a vienna conservatory, living with her mother in a state of emotional and sexual disequilibrium, who enters into a.