Elfriede Jelinek wins 2004 Nobel literature prize

Austrian novelist and playwright Elfriede Jelinek is the first since 1996 to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Elfriede Jelinek, whose father is of Czech-Jewish origin, is best-known for her autobiographical 1983 novel 'The Piano Teacher', which was made into a movie in 2001. The Swedish Academy praised "her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power". But, in Austria, Elfriede Jelinek is a controversial figure, as she was a member of the Communist Party from 1974-1991. The prestigious Nobel Prize is worth 10 million Swedish crowns, or some 1.36 million US dollars. Czech author Milan Kundera had been considered a favourite to win the Nobel Prize this year.