Contemplation about Elfride Jelinek’s The Pianist Cover Image

Kontemplacija o Pijanistici Elfride Jelinek
Contemplation about Elfride Jelinek’s The Pianist

Author(s): Ajla Demiragić
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Bosansko filološko društvo
Keywords: pogled; feministička filmska teorija pogleda; skopofilija; epistemofilija; samokažnjavanje; tijelo; Pijanistica; Elfride Jelinek

Summary/Abstract: The present article has a twofold purpose. Firstly, it represents an analysis of the role and the significance of gaze in a literary text or, more precisely, an attempt at evaluating the functions and outcomes of a female gaze in a concrete narrative text, the novel by the Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek titled The Piano Teacher (= Die Klavierspielerin). Secondly, this article aims to offer a contrubution to clarifying the connection between gaze as a narration phenomenon and some of the key concepts of the contemporary theory, such as knowledge, power, and control. Particular emphasis is placed on the analysis of some of the scenes of gazing in this novel, in an attempt to identify the ways and strategies through which the author undermines and criticizes the common values of a consumerist society, simultaneously re-examining some of the crucial feminist postulates.

  • Issue Year: 2007
  • Issue No: 05
  • Page Range: 313-327
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Bosnian