<i>Contempt for the Whos?</i> or: How to Read Nietzsche Autobiographically after the Death of the <i>Bios</i>
This paper examines French philosopher Sarah Kofman’s fractured relationships to her identities as Jew and woman. Active participant in postwar debates surrounding deconstruction and psychoanalysis, acclaimed reader of Freud and Nietzsche, and interlocutor of Derrida, Kofman is today most widely rem...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-02-01
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| Series: | Religions |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/3/205 |
| _version_ | 1797442835303104512 |
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| author | Joel Swanson |
| author_facet | Joel Swanson |
| author_sort | Joel Swanson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper examines French philosopher Sarah Kofman’s fractured relationships to her identities as Jew and woman. Active participant in postwar debates surrounding deconstruction and psychoanalysis, acclaimed reader of Freud and Nietzsche, and interlocutor of Derrida, Kofman is today most widely remembered for her autobiographical writings about her childhood as a young Orthodox Jewish girl during the Nazi occupation of Paris. Kofman’s mother sent her to pretend to be the daughter of a Christian woman, which both ensured Kofman’s physical survival and led to an uncanny Freudian doubling of the maternal figure, such that both “Jew” and “Christian” became unstable, mimetic identity categories which Kofman could never again fully inhabit. The paper examines Kofman’s writings on Nietzsche, suggesting that her attempt to absolve the German philosopher of the charges of antisemitism oft leveled against him functioned as a similarly failed and incomplete means of asserting control over her personal identity. If Kofman could demonstrate that Nietzsche was not in fact an antisemite, then she could write herself into the lineage of Continental philosophy and reclaim the stable ancestry she lost during the war. Yet the paper concludes that a counter-narrative running throughout Kofman’s writings suggests an awareness that she could never fully absolve Nietzsche, and therefore that her attempt to claim Nietzsche as a father figure would always fail. The paper thus suggests that the illusion of control and stability epitomized by Kofman’s reading of Nietzsche provides an interpretive thematic to understand the unstable figure of the post-Holocaust Jewish philosopher. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T12:47:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4f30d850abb448e9882ad48aac6b2ba2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2077-1444 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T12:47:55Z |
| publishDate | 2022-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Religions |
| spelling | doaj.art-4f30d850abb448e9882ad48aac6b2ba22023-11-30T22:09:45ZengMDPI AGReligions2077-14442022-02-0113320510.3390/rel13030205<i>Contempt for the Whos?</i> or: How to Read Nietzsche Autobiographically after the Death of the <i>Bios</i>Joel Swanson0The University of Chicago Divinity School, Swift Hall, 1025 E. 58th St., Chicago, IL 60637, USAThis paper examines French philosopher Sarah Kofman’s fractured relationships to her identities as Jew and woman. Active participant in postwar debates surrounding deconstruction and psychoanalysis, acclaimed reader of Freud and Nietzsche, and interlocutor of Derrida, Kofman is today most widely remembered for her autobiographical writings about her childhood as a young Orthodox Jewish girl during the Nazi occupation of Paris. Kofman’s mother sent her to pretend to be the daughter of a Christian woman, which both ensured Kofman’s physical survival and led to an uncanny Freudian doubling of the maternal figure, such that both “Jew” and “Christian” became unstable, mimetic identity categories which Kofman could never again fully inhabit. The paper examines Kofman’s writings on Nietzsche, suggesting that her attempt to absolve the German philosopher of the charges of antisemitism oft leveled against him functioned as a similarly failed and incomplete means of asserting control over her personal identity. If Kofman could demonstrate that Nietzsche was not in fact an antisemite, then she could write herself into the lineage of Continental philosophy and reclaim the stable ancestry she lost during the war. Yet the paper concludes that a counter-narrative running throughout Kofman’s writings suggests an awareness that she could never fully absolve Nietzsche, and therefore that her attempt to claim Nietzsche as a father figure would always fail. The paper thus suggests that the illusion of control and stability epitomized by Kofman’s reading of Nietzsche provides an interpretive thematic to understand the unstable figure of the post-Holocaust Jewish philosopher.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/3/205HolocaustNietzscheFreudpsychoanalysismodern Jewish thoughtFrance |
| spellingShingle | Joel Swanson <i>Contempt for the Whos?</i> or: How to Read Nietzsche Autobiographically after the Death of the <i>Bios</i> Religions Holocaust Nietzsche Freud psychoanalysis modern Jewish thought France |
| title | <i>Contempt for the Whos?</i> or: How to Read Nietzsche Autobiographically after the Death of the <i>Bios</i> |
| title_full | <i>Contempt for the Whos?</i> or: How to Read Nietzsche Autobiographically after the Death of the <i>Bios</i> |
| title_fullStr | <i>Contempt for the Whos?</i> or: How to Read Nietzsche Autobiographically after the Death of the <i>Bios</i> |
| title_full_unstemmed | <i>Contempt for the Whos?</i> or: How to Read Nietzsche Autobiographically after the Death of the <i>Bios</i> |
| title_short | <i>Contempt for the Whos?</i> or: How to Read Nietzsche Autobiographically after the Death of the <i>Bios</i> |
| title_sort | i contempt for the whos i or how to read nietzsche autobiographically after the death of the i bios i |
| topic | Holocaust Nietzsche Freud psychoanalysis modern Jewish thought France |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/3/205 |
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