On the occasion of Elfriede Jelinek’s 80th birthday, the Austrian Cultural Forum in Warsaw hosted an international event entitled WELT.AUTORIN.JELINEK: Sprache & Demokratie (English: WORLD.AUTHOR.JELINEK: Language & Democracy). Students of the Department of German Language and Literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek responded to the invitation to participate in marking this important anniversary within the network of Austrian Libraries Abroad of the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs of the Republic of Austria.
On Friday, 19 June 2026, a series of lectures was held on the rich body of work and significant reception of the influential author, and the entire event was also streamed online. The afternoon programme included a video produced by students of German Language and Literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek. From 3:00 p.m., under the programme item Labor: Demokratie versus Totalitarismus. Jelinek übersetzen (English: Laboratory: Democracy vs. Totalitarianism. Translating Jelinek), video contributions by Austrian Libraries from Poland, Romania, Turkey, Hungary and Croatia were presented. The Republic of Croatia was represented by the Austrian Library in Zadar and students of the Department of German Language and Literature in Osijek as a partner of the Austrian Reading Room at GISKO.
A valuable contribution to understanding Jelinek’s poetics in translation into other languages and media was provided precisely by the video produced by the Osijek students. Under the mentorship of Iris Spajić, PhD, Senior Assistant, the video was prepared by third-year students of the single-major and double-major undergraduate study programmes in German Language and Literature: Nina Ćaćić, Laura Horvat, Lea Kaselj, Mia-Sofi Mišetić, Leon Mudri, Lora Opančar, Anna Papp, Emanuel Rapaić and Ivana Ergotić.
The video Welt.Autorin.Jelinek: Version Osijek will also be presented to the local audience as part of the Austrian Culture Days programme in November 2026.
Asst. Prof. Stephanie Jug, PhD
