Sarah Kofman

Who was Sarah Kofman?

Sarah Kofman was a French philosopher, born in Paris.

Kofman began her teaching career in Toulouse in 1960, and worked with both Jean Hyppolite and Gilles Deleuze. Her primary thesis, later published as Nietzsche et la métaphore, was supervised by Deleuze. In 1969 Kofman met Jacques Derrida and began attending his seminars at the Ecole Normale Supérieure. Kofman did not receive tenure until 1991, when she was appointed to a chair at the Sorbonne.

Kofman was the author of numerous books, including several on Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. Her book, L'énigme de la femme: La femme dans les textes de Freud, is perhaps the most thorough consideration of Freud's ideas concerning female sexuality.