On Corporeal Taboos in Elfriede Jelinek’s Novel The Piano Teacher
Ayşenur Özkan Işık, Habib TekinSince the 1980s, a proliferation of works have been found dealing with the position of women in society and how the female body is tabooed. One can see how women writers handled issues that had not been possible to talk about until that period. The Austrian Elfriede Jelinek, Nobel Prize-winning author of The Piano Teacher (1983), which this study discusses, emphasized the victimization and marginalization of women in many of her works. This study aims to examine how the tabooing of the female body was made an open subject of discussion in The Piano Teacher and how this novel addressed issues that could not even be discussed at that time. The first part of this study, which has been written under three main headings, discusses the concept of taboo, which has its origins in the earliest periods of humanity and has been an important limitation in the social and societal position of women, while the second part reveals the life and literary experiences of the author Elfriede Jelinek. While analyzing the main character Erika’s psychological conflicts with her own body, the study examines the taboos and masochistic actions affecting the character’s life and body by making use of the concept of taboo as described by Sigmund Freud (1913), the founder of psychoanalysis, in his work Totem and Taboo. The final main part of the work analyzes the taboos in The Piano Teacher under three subheadings. The first is an examination of the character’s relationship with her mother, who plays a major role in the emergence of her bodily taboos. The second subheading provides a detailed presentation of the areas in which these taboos emerge in the character’s life, and the last subheading shows how the social and physical taboos under which the character is trapped are put into action through her younger student, Walter Klemmer.
Elfriede Jelinek’in Piyanist Romanında Bedensel Tabuların İncelenmesi
Ayşenur Özkan Işık, Habib Tekin80’li yıllardan itibaren kadınların toplumdaki konumlarını ve kadın bedeninin toplum tarafından nasıl tabulaştırıldığını ele alan eserler çoğalmıştır. Bu eserler sayesinde o döneme kadar konuşulması pek mümkün olmayan mevzuların kadın yazarlar tarafından nasıl işlendiğini görebiliriz. Bu çalışmada ele alınan Piyanist eserinin Nobel ödüllü yazarı Avusturyalı Elfriede Jelinek, birçok eserinde kadınların mağduriyetlerinin ve ötekileştirilmelerinin üzerinde durmuştur. Bu çalışmada kadın bedeninin tabulaştırılmasının Piyanist eserinde nasıl açık bir tartışma konusu haline getirildiği ve o dönemde konuşulması bile mümkün olmayan mevzuların bu kitapla birlikte nasıl ele alındığı incelenmektedir. Üç ana başlıkla kaleme alınan bu çalışmanın ilk bölümünde, kökeni insanlığın en eski dönemlerine dayanan ve kadınların sosyal-toplumsal konumlarında önemli bir sınırlayıcı olan tabu kavramından bahsedilirken, ikinci bölümde yazar Elfriede Jelinek’in yaşamından ve yazın hayatından bahsedilmektedir. Ana karakter Erika’nın kendi bedeniyle ilgili yaşadığı ruhsal çatışmalar incelenirken, Psikanaliz’ in kurucusu sayılan Sigmund Freud’un Totem ve Tabu eserinde belirttiği tabu kavramından faydalanılarak, karakterin yaşamına ve bedenine etki eden tabular ve mazoşist eylemler irdelenmektedir. Eserin ana ve son bölümünü oluşturan kısımda, Piyanist eserinde işlenen tabular analiz edilmektedir. Üç alt başlıkta analiz edilen bu bölümde öncelikle karakterin bedensel tabularının ortaya çıkmasında büyük rol oynayan anne ile ilişkisi incelenmektedir. İkinci alt başlıkta ise bu tabuların karakterin yaşamında hangi alanlarda ortaya çıktığı irdelenirken, son bölümde içerisine sıkıştırıldığı toplumsal ve bedensel tabuları kendinden yaşça küçük öğrencisi Walter Klemmer üzerinden nasıl eyleme geçirdiği kaleme alınmaktadır.
From past to present, women have generally remained in the shadow of men for many millennia and been left in the background. In this process, women have focused on tasks such as childcare and housework at home and were expected to be ready to support their husbands. The female body was frequently tabooed during this process. As a result of this tabooing, women sometimes retreated into their own inner worlds and had to struggle with feelings of individual and social inadequacy. At various times, women have generally had a subordinate position and tried to assume a role as mother and wife within the home or been forced to do so. The study conducts an analysis under two main headings, with the first part dealing with the concept of taboos, which are argued to be rooted even further back than the emergence of religions and which is subjected to great criticism even today in women’s struggle for existence. Meanwhile, the second part of the study examines the taboos in Elfriede Jelinek’s (1983) The Piano Teacher. The theme of this work has succeeded in making one of the situations many women have experienced a topic of discussion in society. Erika Kohut, the main character of the work being studied here, is a woman who grew up under maternal pressure, and although she is in her thirties, she is still trying to live her life under the strict matronage of her mother. This novel discourse deals with a woman’s endeavor to find herself after growing up with pressures and taboos. This study analyzes the taboos in the discourse and how a woman can feel alien in her own body.
Jelinek wrote The Piano Teacher in two separate parts. The first part of the study analyzes the main character Erika’s relationship with her mother, which is based on psychological violence. While analyzing Erika’s psychological conflicts with her own body, the study also examines the taboos and masochistic actions affecting the character’s life and body by making use of the concept of taboos as described by Sigmund Freud (1913), the founder of psychoanalysis, in his work Totem and Taboo. The second part of the study analyzes Erika’s relationship with her younger student, Walter Klemmer. While Klemmer wants to liberate Erika spiritually in this relationship, he also sees her as a stepping stone for his other future relationships. Meanwhile, Erika demands that Klemmer inflict violence on her and even rape her.
This article describes the various sexual and corporeal taboos that dominate the main character’s life and showshow these taboos are reflected in her life. The analysis of these taboos provides a perspective on how such issues are presented in literature. In the novel Jelinek as the author is able to shed light on the psychological and social mechanisms that are effective in maintaining taboos and how they reflect in individuals’ lives. At the same time, the author wrote about the psychological effects of sexual violence and the forms masochism takes, which are difficult to depict in literature, and reflected on the possible consequences all these have in individuals’ lives. The exploration of corporeal taboos in this work also provides an opportunity to write critically about women’s roles in society. In fact, their roles prepare the groundwork for understanding a systematic order that limits women’s existence and sexual identities within the patriarchal social order and for trapping them in their lives. This study analyzes how the system can also cause self-destruction in women’s lives. At the same time, this novel analyzes how women are forced to suppress their sexual identities and the deep psychological consequences of doing so. Being able to shed some light on these issues gives an idea about how individuals maintain social norms and taboos even today.
As the protagonist of the work, Erika Kohut’s relationships also offer an artistic perspective on the work. Jelinek wrote about art as a method the character uses to suppress her own traumas. This study analyzes the character who lives at home under the domination of an oppressive mother and creates a different identity for herself through art, where she transforms from a victim to an oppressive character, and also examines the imbalances in protagonist’s existence. In general, analyzing the corporeal taboos in Elfriede Jelinek’s The Piano Teacher provides an opportunity to examine the effects social norms and stereotypes have on individuals’ lives.
