The Piano Teacher

1. The Piano Teacher by ElfriedeJelinek b. 1946

2. Austrian playwright and novelist • Nobel prize 2004 • focuses largely on: • female sexuality • abuse of sexuality • war of the sexes • sees power and aggression as principal driving forces of relationships • was herself raised by an overbearing mother to be a musical star • eventual anxiety and depressionculminating in self-isolation in her parents’ house for a year

3. novel published 1983 • first of hers translated into English in 1990 • film version 2001 • deals with Erika Kohut • her mother • Walter Klemmer • control • power • perversion • lust • control (yes, twice)

4. Aspects to Discuss • Aesthetics, music, art – pleasure/pain • self-harm, cutting, control – discipline, the body • peep-shows, secrecy, shame, control – voyeurism • bathroom/seduction scene • letter to Walter • climactic scene and aftermath

5. Aesthetics • music • what does the study of music entail? • how is that recorded in the novel? • precision | tension | discipline | release

6. Aesthetics • style, form, aesthetics of this novel • how would you describe them?

7. Aesthetics • style, form, aesthetics of this novel • how would you describe them? • fluid, but also stiff • paratactic, simple prose • temporal variation, rhythm • old-fashioned • translation – foreign • Free Indirect Discourse • stilted and formal • lots of nouns, full names, repetition • detached, difficult, objective