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Sarah Kofman (; 14 September 1934 – 15 October 1994) was a French
philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
.


Biography

Kofman began her teaching career in
Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...
in 1960 at the Lycée Saint-Sernin, and worked with both Jean Hyppolite and
Gilles Deleuze Gilles Louis René Deleuze (18 January 1925 â€“ 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes o ...
. Her abandoned primary thesis (') for her State doctorate, later published as ', was supervised by Deleuze. In 1969 Kofman met Jacques Derrida and began attending his seminars at the
École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...
. Kofman did not receive tenure until 1991, when she was appointed to a chair at Paris I. Kofman was the author of numerous books, including several on
Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...
and
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
. Her book, (1980), is perhaps the most thorough consideration of Freud's ideas concerning female sexuality.


Writings

Though many of her philosophical writings focused on Nietzsche and Freud, Kofman wrote several works in an autobiographical vein. ' (1987) is dedicated to the memory of her father, rabbi Bereck Kofman, whom she saw for the last time on 16 July 1942, and who was killed at Auschwitz. ''Rue Ordener, rue Labat'' (1994) also opens with the removal of her father by the French police, and describes what Kofman understands to have been his fate. The title refers to two Parisian streets: the address at which her family lived until her father's arrest; and the address at which she was sheltered for much of the remainder of the war. Kofman was taken in by a Parisian divorcée who became her surrogate mother and whom she called Mémé. The book tells the story of this period, and of the custody dispute between Mémé and Kofman's mother following the liberation of Paris.


Death

Kofman committed
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
in 1994. She was survived by her partner of 25 years, Alexandre Kyritsos. The fact that she died by suicide so on the date of Nietzsche's 150th birthday has been seen by some writers as significant.Christie McDonald
Sarah Kofman: Effecting Self Translation
p. 191
After her death, Jacques Derrida wrote the following:


Bibliography


Books

*''L'enfance de l'art: Une interprétation de l'esthétique freudienne'' (1970). Trans.: ''The Childhood of Art: An Interpretation of Freud's
Aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...
'' (1988). *''Nietzsche et la métaphore'' (1972). Trans.: ''Nietzsche and Metaphor'' (1993). *''Camera obscura: De l'idéologie'' (1973). Trans.: ''
Camera Obscura A camera obscura (; ) is the natural phenomenon in which the rays of light passing through a aperture, small hole into a dark space form an image where they strike a surface, resulting in an inverted (upside down) and reversed (left to right) ...
: Of
Ideology An ideology is a set of beliefs or values attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely about belief in certain knowledge, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones". Form ...
'' (1998). *''Quatre romans analytiques'' (1974). Trans.: ''Freud and Fiction'' (1991). *''Autobiogriffures'' (1976). *''Aberrations: Le devenir-femme d'
Auguste Comte Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte (; ; 19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857) was a French philosopher, mathematician and writer who formulated the doctrine of positivism. He is often regarded as the first philosopher of science in the ...
'' (1978). *'' Nerval: Le charme de la répétition'' (1979). *''Nietzsche et la scène philosophique'' (1979). *''L'énigme de la femme: La femme dans les textes de Freud'' (1980). Trans.: ''The Enigma of Woman: Woman in Freud's Writings'' (1985). *''Le respect des femmes ( Kant et Rousseau)'' (1982). *''Comment s'en sortir?'' (1983). *''Un métier impossible: Lecture de "Constructions en analyse"'' (1983). *''Lectures de Derrida'' (1984). *'' Mélancholie de l'art'' (1985). *''Pourquoi rit-on? Freud et le mot d'esprit'' (1986). *''Paroles suffoquées'' (1987). Trans.: ''Smothered Words'' (1998). *''Conversions:'' Le Marchand de Venise ''sous le signe de Saturne'' (1987). *''Socrate(s)'' (1989). Trans.: ''
Socrates Socrates (; ; – 399 BC) was a Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and as among the first moral philosophers of the Ethics, ethical tradition ...
: Fictions of a Philosopher'' (1998). *''Séductions: De Sartre à Héraclite'' (1990). *'' Don Juan ou le refus de la dette'' (1991). *''"Il n'y a que le premier pas qui coûte": Freud et la spéculation'' (1991). *''Explosion I: De l'"Ecce Homo" de Nietzsche'' (1992). *''Explosion II: Les enfants de Nietzsche'' (1993). *''Le mépris des Juifs: Nietzsche, les Juifs, l'antisémitisme'' (1994). *''Rue Ordener, rue Labat'' (1994). Trans.: ''Rue Ordener, Rue Labat'' (1996). *''L'imposture de la beauté et autres textes'' (1995). *''Selected Writings'' (2007). Edited by Thomas Albrecht, Georgia Albert & Elizabeth G. Rottenberg; introduction by Jacques Derrida.


Articles

Note: this list does not include portions of books where a translation of the entire book was subsequently published. *"No Longer Full-Fledged ''Autobiogriffies''," ''SubStance'' 29 (1981): 3–22. From: ''Autobiogriffures'' (1976). *"Sartre: Fort! Ou Da?", ''Diacritics'' 14, 4 (1984): 9–18. *"Damned Food," ''SubStance'' 49 (1986): 8–9. *"Tomb for a Proper Name," ''SubStance'' 49 (1986): 9–10. *"Nightmare: At the Margins of Medieval Studies," ''SubStance'' 49 (1986): 10–13. From: ''Comment s'en sortir?'' (1983). *" Prometheus, the First Philosopher," ''SubStance'' 50 (1986): 26–35. From: ''Comment s'en sortir?'' (1983). *"Nietzsche and the Obscurity of Heraclitus," ''Diacritics'' 17, 3 (1987): 39–55. From: ''Séductions: De Sartre à Héraclite'' (1990). *"Baubô: Theological Perversion and Fetishism," in Michael Allen Gillespie & Tracy B. Strong, ''Nietzsche's New Seas: Explorations in Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Politics'' (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1988). From: ''Nietzsche et la scène philosophique'' (1979). *"Beyond Aporia?", in Andrew Benjamin (ed.), ''Post-structuralist Classics'' (London & New York: Routledge, 1988). From: ''Comment s'en sortir?'' (1983). *"'Ça cloche'," in Hugh J. Silverman (ed.), ''Derrida and Deconstruction'' (New York & London: Routledge, 1989). From: ''Lectures de Derrida'' (1984). Originally delivered at the 1980 Cerisy colloquy, "Les fins de l'homme." *"Conversions: ''The Merchant of Venice'' under the Sign of Saturn," in Peter Collier & Helga Geyer-Ryan (eds.), ''Literary Theory Today'' (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990). From: ''Conversions:'' Le Marchand de Venise ''sous le signe de Saturne'' (1987). *"Metaphoric Architectures," in Laurence A. Rickels (ed.), ''Looking After Nietzsche'' (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990). *" Descartes Entrapped," in Eduardo Cadava, Peter Connor, & Jean-Luc Nancy, ''Who Comes After the Subject?'' (New York & London: Routledge, 1991). From: ''Nietzsche et la scène philosophique'' (1979). *"Rousseau's Phallocratic Ends," in *"Explosion I: Of Nietzsche's ''Ecce Homo''," ''Diacritics'' 24, 4 (1994): 50–70. From: ''Explosion I: De l'"Ecce Homo" de Nietzsche'' (1992). *"A Fantastical Genealogy: Nietzsche's Family Romance," in Peter J. Burgard (ed.), ''Nietzsche and the Feminine'' (Charlottesville & London: University Press of Virginia, 1994). From: ''Explosion I: De l'"Ecce Homo" de Nietzsche'' (1992). *"'It's Only the First Step That Costs'," in Sonu Shamdasani & Michael Münchow (eds.), ''Speculations After Freud: Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, Culture'' (London & New York: Routledge, 1994). From: ''"Il n'y a que le premier pas qui coûte": Freud et la spéculation'' (1991). *" Wagner's Ascetic Ideal According to Nietzsche," in Richard Schacht (ed.), ''Nietzsche, Genealogy, Morality: Essays on Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994). *"The Psychologist of the Eternal Feminine (Why I Write Such Good Books, 5)," ''Yale French Studies'' 87 (1995): 173–89. From: ''Explosion II: Les enfants de Nietzsche'' (1993). *"Accessories (''Ecce Homo'', 'Why I Write Such Good Books,' 'The Untimelies,' 3)," in Peter R. Sedgwick (ed.), ''Nietzsche: A Critical Reader'' (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995). From: ''Explosion II: Les enfants de Nietzsche'' (1993). *"The Economy of Respect: Kant and Respect for Women," in Robin May Schott (ed.), ''Feminist Interpretations of Immanuel Kant'' (University Park, Penn.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997). From: ''Le respect des femmes (Kant et Rousseau)'' (1982). *"The Imposture of Beauty: The Uncanniness of Oscar Wilde's ''Picture of Dorian Gray''," in Penelope Deutscher & Kelly Oliver (eds.), ''Enigmas: Essays on Sarah Kofman'' (Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 1999). From: ''L'imposture de la beauté et autres textes'' (1995).


Interviews

*"Sarah Kofman," interview with Alice Jardine, in Alice Jardine & Anne M. Menke (eds.), ''Shifting Scenes: Interviews on Women, Writing, and Politics in Post-68 France'' (New York & Oxford: Columbia University Press, 1991). *"Writing without Power: A Conversation with Sarah Kofman," interview with Ursula Konnertz, ''Women's Philosophy Review'' (June 1995): 5–8.


See also

* List of thinkers influenced by deconstruction


References


Further reading

* Botz-Bornstein, Thorsten, 'Respect and Shame: Sarah Kofman on Veiling' in T. Botz-Bornstein, ''Veils, Nudity, and Tattoos: The New Feminine Aesthetics'' (Lanham: Lexington-Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), 71–79. *Chanter, Tina, & Pleshette DeArmitt (eds.), ''Sarah Kofman's Corpus'' (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2008). *Deutscher, Penelope, & Kelly Oliver (eds.), ''Enigmas: Essays on Sarah Kofman'' (Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 1999). Includes a foreword by Jean-Luc Nancy and an extensive bibliography of Kofman's writing. *Faulkner, Joanne, 'Keeping it in the Family’: Sarah Kofman Reading Nietzsche as a Jewish Woman." ''Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy''. 23 January–March 2008: 41-64. *Robson, Kathryn
Bodily detours: Sarah Kofman's Narratives of Childhood Trauma
*Tan, Jean Emily P., ''Sarah Kofman as philosopher of the uncanny double: Sarah Kofman's appropriation of Nietzsche and Freud'' (ProQuest, UMI Dissertation Publishing, 2011). *Thériault, Mélissa, "Humor" and "Autobiography" in Sarah Kofman
ECC- Encyclopedia of Concise Concepts by Women Philosophers
2019.


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kofman, Sarah 1934 births 1994 suicides 1994 deaths Writers from Paris École Normale Supérieure alumni Academic staff of the University of Paris French autobiographers 20th-century French Jews French women philosophers Jewish philosophers Philosophers of sexuality Women and psychology Freudians Post-structuralists 20th-century French philosophers 20th-century French women writers Suicides in Paris French women essayists Women autobiographers Women religious writers 20th-century French essayists University of Paris alumni