Safaa Fathy

Last updated
Safaa Fathy
صفاء فتحي
Born (1958-07-17) July 17, 1958 (age 67)
Nationality Egyptian
Occupation(s)Poet, documentary filmmaker, playwright and essayist
Website http://safaafathy.org/en/

Safaa Fathy (born July 17, 1958) is an Egyptian poet, documentary filmmaker, playwright, and essayist. She is best known for her film Derrida's Elsewhere, a documentary that focuses on the life and concepts of controversial philosopher Jacques Derrida.

Contents

Early life and career

Fathy was born in Minya, Upper Egypt, on July 17, 1958. She studied English literature in Cairo. Fathy participated in the student movement while in Egypt but later left the country and settled in Paris in 1981. In 1987, she was an assistant director at the Deutsches Theater located in East Berlin. Fathy worked with Heiner Muller in 1990. [1] She completed her doctoral thesis at the Sorbonne in 1993; [2] her thesis was on Bertolt Brecht. Before becoming a filmmaker, Fathy worked as a stage director. [1]

Currently she serves as director of programme at the International College of Philosophy in Paris. [2]

In an interview that explores how Fathy uses film editing to construct her narrative, examining her choices in pacing, juxtaposition, and the use of archival footage or other visual elements, "Cutting" may also refer to the way Fathy confronts historical trauma and the fragmentation of memory. [3]

Selected works

Poetry

Collections

  • Revolution goes through walls, collection in Arabic, also published in English and French translations
  • A name to the sea
  • Al Haschiche ( ISBN   9789689246138, a book of poetry accompanied by film-poem, Hidden Valley) bilingual Spanish-French, Ediciones sin nombre, Mexico; English-language edition, Pamenar Press.
  • …où ne pas naître, bilingual collection in Arabic and French
  • Little Wooden Dolls
  • حيث لا نولد, published in a bilingual Arabic-English edition as Where Not to Be Born (Litmus Press, 2024)

In collective volumes

  • Ma langue est mon territoire, Collection Folies d’encre, Eden, Paris
  • Anthology of Contemporary Arab Women Poets [4]

Theatre

Ordalie; Terreur (2004, ISBN   9782872823796)

Books

Essays and other writings

On philosophy and politics

On poetry, theatre, cinema

  • hôra/Luz y desierto. Revelación de lo oscuro (Spanish, 2010)
  • Hisser les voiles: Odyssée féminine à travers la Méditerranée. Microfisuras, 1999*
  • Dissidences et dissonances. Cartographie d'une poésie égyptienne. Almadraba (revue), Seville. 1998
  • Exil, in Pour Rushdie, La Découverte, Paris. 1993

Selected filmography

Documentary

Fiction

References

  1. 1 2 Hillauer, Rebecca (2005). Encyclopedia of Arab women filmmakers . Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press. pp.  72–80. ISBN   9789774162688.
  2. 1 2 "Safaa Fathy". Safaa Fathy. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
  3. Fathy, Safaa (2008-01-01). "Cutting and Film Cutting/Ashes An Interview with Chantal Zabus" . Matatu. 37 (1): 219–233. doi:10.1163/9789042030619_012. ISSN   1875-7421.
  4. Handal, Nathalie (2001). The poetry of Arab women : a contemporary anthology . New York: Interlink Books. ISBN   9781566563741.
  5. Derrida, Jacques; Fathy, Safaa (2000). Tourner les mots : au bord d'un film. Paris. ISBN   9782718605401.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. 1 2 Derrida, Jacques; Fathy, Safaa; Cavitch, Max (March 2016). "Contre-jour" . Publications of the Modern Language Association of America. 131 (2): 540–551. doi:10.1632/pmla.2016.131.2.540. ISSN   0030-8129.
  7. Dufourmantelle, Anne (2013-07-16). "L'hospitalité, une valeur universelle ?". Insistance. 8 (2): 57–62. doi:10.3917/insi.008.0057. ISSN   1778-7807.
  8. Cavitch, Max (2021). Specters of Translation: Jacques Derrida, Safaa Fathy, and Nom à la mer. Oxford Literary Review 43.2: 209-48.