RELEASED: Oct. 14, 2004

DANVILLE, KY—Ian Wilson was quick to send a congratulatory e-mail to Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek last week after she was awarded a Nobel Prize for literature.

Wilson, visiting instructor of German and humanities at Centre, has met and exchanged ideas with Jelinek. This spring term, Wilson will explore one of her novels in German 420: The Theme of Love in German Culture.

"She responded to my e-mail this weekend thanking me for my thoughts," Wilson says. "Since I'd mentioned I would be reading Die Klavierspielerin [The Piano Teacher] with a group of Centre students, she sent along greetings to them as well. I've found her very giving, supportive and kind. Really quite a lovely person."

Wilson became familiar with Jelinek's work while pursuing his M.A. in comparative literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He began studying her novels and built a Fulbright application around the project. He won a Fulbright and studied in Vienna, Austria—where Jelinek resides. Wilson interviewed her while there.

In November, Wilson will present a paper on one of Jelinek's plays at the Midwest Modern Languages Association Annual Conference in St. Louis.

"She's absolutely a worthy recipient of the Nobel Prize," Wilson told the Charlotte Observer. "Jelinek's work is difficult, very intellectual and steeped in history, but it's also filled with references to popular culture, colloquial speech and puns. There is no figure in European literature quite like her."

For more information on German Studies, go to http://web.centre.edu/ger.

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