Dr Henriette Korthals Altes

Overview

Qualifications

• DPhil (Oxon), Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford
• MPhil in English Language and Literature, Université de la Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Paris III
• MA in English Literature and Language, Université de la Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Paris III
• BA in English Literature and Language, Université de la Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Paris III
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), Higher Education Academy

Research

Research overview

 

I am a specialist in 20th and 21st century French literature and thought. I have widely published on questions of mourning in Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Pascal Quignard and Pierre Michon.  My doctoral research has branched out into several lines of enquiry. Situated at the crossroads of cultural, memory and trauma studies, they hinge around questions of memory, the construction of history and the relation between fiction and history. My research on subjectivity and mourning has led me to look at how national narratives are shaped by cultural mourning, in particular the Vichy period. My current work on the migrant crisis has looked at issues of hospitality, responsibility and grievability whilst my recent work on the 2015 Paris attacks has concerned itself with the representation of trauma, national narratives and the possible roles of transitional and restorative justice.

More recently, I have convened two conferences on the work of Michel Serres. ‘Michel Serres: Thinking beyond boundaries' (MFO, June 2022) has given rise to a special issue of the same title published by Parrhesia. The proceedings of the second conference I convened in this series, ‘Michel Serres and Bruno Latour in conversation’ (May 2024) has been accepted for publication as a special issue with French Studies (scheduled for April 2027). 

I enjoy writing for mainstream media and my work has appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian, the Observer, the Literary Review and The Economist.

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Michel Serres: Thinking Beyond Borders, ed. by Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and Henriette Korthals Altes Parrhesia, Volume 40 (December 2024)

'V13: Chronicle of a Trial by Emmanuel Carrère review – a humane and thoughtful testimony of terror and loss', The Observer, (3 November 2024)

“‘Of a functional value of the idea of God’: Michel Serres, religion and the beauty of mathematics” in in Parrhesia, Volume 40 (December 2024)

'Resilience, Resistance: the collective mourning of the 2015 November attacks in En Thérapie' in Saison: La Revue des Séries (Paris: Classiques-Garnier, September 2024)

‘Fiction as Legal Authority? Orwell, Snowden, and State Cyber-Surveillance’ in Can Fiction Change the World, ed. by Alison James, Françoise Lavocat and Kubo Akihiro (Oxford: Legenda, 2023), pp. 177-190

‘Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida and the gift of tears: beyond mourning and melancholia’ in Variations on the Ethics of Mourning in Modern Literature in French (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2021) ed. by Carole Bourne-Taylor and Sara-Louise Cooper, with an introduction by Dominique Rabaté, pp. 129-15

‘When dance meets texts: Pascal Quignard’s Medea’, Revue Le Sans Visage 2 (2021) Saint-Louis University Press, ed. by Jean-Louis Pautrot 

‘Jouir fantasmatiquement de mon corps unifié’: Music, Writing and Affect in Barthes’s L’Obvie et l’obtus' Barthes Studies, Vol. 3, Nov. 2017 

Supervision and teaching

Teaching

Teaching modules

• French 1 (AREL062S4)

Business and community

I have media training.

Media

I am happy to receive enquiries from the media on the following topics:

• 20th and 21st century French literature and thought

Outreach

I enjoy writing for mainstream media and my work has appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian, the Observer, the Literary Review and The Economist.

Latest publications include:

·       Review of V13: Chronicle of a Trial by Emmanuel Carrère, The Observer, 3 November 2024
·       Review of Down with the Poor! by Shumona Sinha, Times Literary Supplement, 7 July 2023
·       Review of The Easy Life by Marguerite Duras, Times Literary Supplement, 31March 2023
·       Review of Getting Lost by Annie Ernaux: The end of the Affair, The Literary Review, Dec. 2022
·       Review of La plus secrète mémoire des hommes by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Times Literary Supplement, 12 August 2022
·       Review of La Familia Grande by Camille Kouchner, Times Literary Supplement, 3 June 2022
·       Revie of Les Enfants sont rois by Delphine de Vigan, Times Literary Supplement, 21 August 2021
·       Review of L’Anomalie by Le Tellier Times Literary Supplement, 18 December 2020
·       Review of La Mer à l’envers by Marie Darrieussecq, Times Literary Supplement, 10 July 2020