
Contents
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1. Reading Her 1. Reading Her
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At the Library At the Library
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At the Archive At the Archive
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Reading as a Fetishist Reading as a Fetishist
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2. Philosophizing with a Fetish 2. Philosophizing with a Fetish
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A Shuttlecock Between Them A Shuttlecock Between Them
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The End(s) Of Man The End(s) Of Man
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Keeping His Word Keeping His Word
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3. The Last Laugh 3. The Last Laugh
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Two Enemies, A Love Story? Two Enemies, A Love Story?
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Autobiographical Animals Autobiographical Animals
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To Write Like A Cat To Write Like A Cat
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Notes Notes
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A Poor Substitute For Prayer: Sarah Kofman and The Fetish of Writing
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Published:December 2021
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Abstract
This essay on the dangerous stakes of commentary provides a reading of the French-Jewish philosopher, Holocaust survivor and literary critic Sarah Kofman. Given that Kofman is renown primarily as an interpreter of Freud, Nietzsche, and Derrida, Hammerschlag considers whether there is something worth investigating and even emulating in Kofman’s choice to think by reading others. Following Kofman, Hammerschlag asks how the ideals of truth and originality that have driven the history of philosophy mask aggressive impulses and reflect a fear of death. Highlighting the themes of the fetish and apotropaeon in Kofman’s work, the essay considers whether there are alternative ways to engage the western philosophical tradition, ways that resist the impulse toward mastery. It asks whether we can express our longing for security and protection in alternative forms, forms that advertise their fictionality. In Hammerschlag’s reading of Kofman, literature emerges as a site in which we enact devotion while submitting to the rule of the fetish.
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