User:Elisabeth Cottier Fábián

Elisabeth COTTIER-FÁBIÁN (Paris, France)

Birthday: 08/06/1956

Languages - Linguistics - Hungarian literature - Philosophy - Contemporary figurative painting - Translation -

A specialist in Hungarian linguistics and literature, I have been teaching general linguistics, English linguistics, and contrastive linguistics and translation, as Senior Lecturer at Paris University, for over 17 years now (since 1989) -and, before that, as Lecturer at Montpellier's 'Université Paul-Valéry', where I taught general linguistics for 7 years (1982-1989).

My interests are varied, but in my research work these last 15 years I have mostly been publishing articles on Hungarian linguistics, literature, and culture/history.

Raised in three different languages, I am interested, not only in Hungarian, but in several other languages (which, however, I don't speak fluently); and have come to deal more closely with several languages of Central Europe (South Slavic, mostly). I also studied Russian for several years (though my knowledge of it is now rusty...); and, more recently, a little Finnish.

Among my other fields, both in interest and qualification, are:

- philosophy (mostly Spinoza ; Husserl ; Kierkegaard)

- some 20th Century English and American poets: namely, Philip Larkin (my best choice); also, John Betjeman ; Robert Lowell

- world literature (I'm perfectly fluent in 4 languages)

- biology and medical science

- contemporary figurative painting, derived from the French Impressionist school (20th Century Californian impressionists; Scandinavian Impressionism from the early 20th Century...)

- cinema : I'm a great admirer of Danish film-maker Carl Dreyer, and of several Russian film-makers (including Eisenstein). I greatly like Ernst Lubitsch.

I have published translations from Hungarian (mostly into French): poems, short stories, and one novel by Milán Füst (Advent).

Hungarian is the language we speak and read at home, with my 3 young sons (born in 1996, 1997 and 2000).

I am open to any reviews dealing with Hungarian matters; language learning in general; and philosophy.