Dr Alastair Hemmens
Senior Lecturer in French
- hemmensa@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2251 0105
- 2.36, 66a Plas y Parc, Cathays, Caerdydd, CF10 3AS
- Ar gael fel goruchwyliwr ôl-raddedig
Trosolwg
My research focuses on the intellectual history of radical theory in modern French society. I have written extensively on the Situationist International and I am more widely interested in the long history of struggles against and experience of capitalist modernity in France and Belgium. My own critical perspective is greatly informed by the critique of value school developed in Germany by the Krisis group around figures such as Robert Kurz and Roswitha Shulz and, more recently, in France by Anselm Jappe.
In 2014 I was awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship in order to conduct research on a project entitled: “Ne Travaillez jamais: The Critique of Work in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century French Thought, from Charles Fourier to Guy Debord.” The project aims to provide a hidden history of French thinkers who have sought to free human beings from work through the radical transformation of society.
Bywgraffiad
I did my BA in English at University College London. I then moved to Paris where I did an MA in Paris Studies at the University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP). I continued my postgraduate studies at ULIP where I undertook a PhD in French and Comparative Studies with a thesis on the life and work of the Belgian Situationist Raoul Vaneigem. In 2013 I worked for The American University of Washington and Accent International in Paris as a lecturer of Paris: Civilization and Culture. In 2014 I was awarded a three-year Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at Cardiff University.
Anrhydeddau a Dyfarniadau
Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, 3 Years
Cyhoeddiadau
2020
- Hemmens, A. and Zacarias, G. eds. 2020. The situationist international: a critical handbook. London: Pluto Press. (10.2307/j.ctvzsmdw0)
2019
- Hemmens, A. 2019. Ne travaillez jamais. La critique du travail en France de Charles Fourier à Guy Debord. Paris: éditions Crise et critique.
- Hemmens, A. 2019. The critique of work in modern French thought: from Charles Fourier to Guy Debord. Studies in Revolution and Literature. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (10.1007/978-3-030-12586-8)
2017
- Jappe, A. 2017. The writing on the wall: on the decomposition of capitalism and its critics.Hemmens, A. London: Zero Books.
2015
- Hemmens, A. 2015. 'Beau comme le tremblement des mains dans l'alcoolisme': A cavalier history of drugs and intoxication in the Situationist International. In: Brennan, E. and Williams, R. eds. Literature and Intoxication: Writing, Politics and the Experience of Excess. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 173-184.
- Hemmens, A. 2015. We gotta get out of this place - interview with Anselm Jappe. Brooklyn Rail
2014
- Hemmens, A. 2014. Kurz, a journey into capitalism’s ‘Heart of Darkness’. Historical Materialism 22(3-4), pp. 395-407. (10.1163/1569206X-12341340)
- Hemmens, A. 2014. Towards a history of the critique of value. Capitalism Nature Socialism 25(2), pp. 25-37. (10.1080/10455752.2014.906820)
2013
- Hemmens, A. 2013. Le Vampire du Borinage: Raoul Vaneigem, Hiver '60, and the hennuyer working class. Francosphères 2(2), pp. 135-147. (10.3828/franc.2013.13)
2012
- Hemmens, A. and Russell, W. eds. 2012. Autour de l'extrême littéraire. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Addysgu
I teach modules on translation, modern France and May ’68. I also supervise fourth-year dissertations. Previous to Cardiff, I taught a course on the history and culture of Paris for the American University Washington that included on-site lectures in historically significant sites in the city. My approach to teaching is grounded in my own experiences and passion as a researcher, a translator and a student of modern languages.
