Sarah Kofman lectrice de Nietzsche

Journée d’étude at the Columbia Global Centers—Paris

with Laure Adler, Danielle Cohen-Levinas, Mathieu Frackowiak, Geneviève Fraisse, Daniele Lorenzini, Mara Montanaro, and Monique Schneider

The French philosopher, Sarah Kofman (1934-1994), developed new readings of Nietzsche and Freud. A professor at the University of Paris—Sorbonne, Kofman published numerous books on Nietzsche, starting with Nietzsche et la métaphore (1972), followed by Nietzsche et la scène philosophique (1979), Explosion I: De l’Ecce Homo de Nietzsche (1992), Explosion II: Les enfants de Nietzsche (1993), and then, in 1994, her last book, Le mépris des Juifs. Nietzsche, les Juifs, l’antisémitisme. Kofman’s other works, especially her two autobiographical books, Paroles suffoquées [Smothered Words] (1987) and her penultimate book Rue Orderner, Rue Labat (1994), are equally important texts that tell of her harrowing childhood as a Jewish young girl during Nazi occupied France.

This day of study on Sarah Kofman’s work will focus on the many dimensions of her writings and interventions and readings of Nietzsche, including especially her writings on antisemitism, on women and gender, and on metaphor. We will be focusing on the above mentioned books, but ask participants to read closely Nietzsche and Metaphor (1972), a book that is so deeply relevant to us all today—and that raises the central question for law and politics, the question that has plagued or haunted the judicial practice for centuries: whether law is a scientific endeavor based on conceptual analysis or instead an art form based on metaphors. For more on this question, read here.

Welcome to Nietzsche 7/13!

Program

Welcome

Loren Wolfe (Columbia University) & Christine Valero (Columbia University)

Introduction

Daniele Lorenzini (Columbia University/Université Paris 1)

Morning Panel

Chair : Bernard E. Harcourt (Columbia University)

Danielle Cohen-Levinas (Université Paris-Sorbonne/Archives Husserl) : Du mépris au soupçon. Sarah Kofman lit Nietzsche

Geneviève Fraisse (CNRS) : « À supposer que la vérité soit femme »…

Mara Montanaro (LEGS, Université Paris 8) : La philosophie comme aporie

Afternoon Panel

Chair : Florent Jakob (Columbia University)

Monique Schneider (CNRS) : Le chemin interprétatif conduisant aux « entrailles »

Mathieu Frackowiak : Figures de la séduction

Laure Adler (France Culture) : Explosion II