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1 February 2026, 16:30
Meeting with the author Karoline Feyertag and her translators — Monika Muskała and Janusz Margański. Moderated by Agata Bielik‑Robson.
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Foyer of the New Theatre / New Bookshop
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Free entry
New book: “Sarah Kofman. Philosophy as Auto/Biography” by Karoline Feyertag, trans. Monika Muskała and Janusz Margański, słowo/obraz terytoria.
An introduction to the life and work of Sarah Kofman (1934–1994) — an outstanding French philosopher, writer and feminist of Polish‑Jewish origin. Karoline Feyertag writes in harmony with the thought of her subject, who believed that philosophy is always a personal matter.
Sarah is born in Paris to a family of Polish Jews. Her father, a Hasidic rabbi, is arrested in 1942 and dies in Auschwitz. Together with her mother, who strives to preserve Jewish tradition, the girl finds refuge with the “lady from rue Labat,” a young widow through whom she becomes acquainted with French culture. After the war Kofman goes through successive stages of education, emancipates herself within a male‑dominated academic environment and ultimately becomes a professor at the Sorbonne. She forms close relationships with thinkers such as Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze and Jean‑Luc Nancy. In 1994, on the 150th anniversary of Nietzsche’s birth, she commits suicide.
Feyertag’s aim is not merely to reconstruct Kofman’s life. The author sees figures of thought in life events and an autobiographical mirror in philosophical discourse. She draws on the philosophical tradition close to Kofman — reaching to Freud, Nietzsche, Derrida. This creates a moving, subtly shaded spiritual portrait of an extraordinary thinker.
Karoline Feyertag studied philosophy and worked as a researcher in Vienna and Paris, including at IFK International Research Center for Cultural Studies, at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Her book “Sarah Kofman. Philosophy as (Auto)biography” is the result of her doctoral research carried out in 2007–2010 in Paris. Since 2022 she has worked at the University of Klagenfurt. She is an Open Access advisor in the Research Support Service. Her research interests include political philosophy, queer studies, feminism, decolonialism and art.
Janusz Margański — translator, literary scholar, screenwriter. He has translated dozens of books in philosophy, including Jean‑Jacques Rousseau, Jacques Derrida, Paul Ricoeur, Gilles Deleuze, Emmanuel Levinas, as well as fiction. For his translations he was awarded the “Literature in the World” Prize (1996). Author of two books on Gombrowicz; co‑editor of the Critical Edition of the Works of Witold Gombrowicz. He is the author and co‑author of several feature film screenplays.
Monika Muskała — translator and writer. She has translated, among others, Thomas Bernhard, Elfriede Jelinek, Werner Schwab. For her translations she received the Karl Dedecius Prize and the ZAIKS prize; she was nominated for the Boy‑Żeleński Prize. Co‑author of plays and novels, including “Rondo Rodeo” (2024) nominated for the Witold Gombrowicz Prize.
Illustration for the series: Jarosław Danilenko
