School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies

Contact Us School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies (SLLCS)
Room 5042, Arts Building
Trinity College Dublin
Dublin 2
Ireland

View the contact page for more contact and location information

sllcsATtcd.ie Gaeilge
Dr. Hannes Opelz

Dr. Hannes Opelz

Assistant Professor, French

3531896 1077https://tcd.academia.edu/HannesOpelz

Biography

Hannes Opelz (PhD Cantab) is Assistant Professor in the Department of French at Trinity College, Dublin. His research focuses on twentieth- and twenty-first century French thought and aesthetics. Methodologically, his work combines a variety of theoretical and analytical tools drawn from, among other fields, mimetic theory, deconstructive materialism, critical mythopoetics, philosophy of technology, gender studies, and environmental humanities. Recent publications include special journal issues on Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe (L'esprit créateur, 2017) and Catherine Malabou (MLN, 2022). He has also published essays on Maurice Blanchot, and more recently, on science fiction.

Publications and Further Research Outputs

  • Thus Spoke Literature in, editor(s)Christopher Langlois , Understanding Blanchot, Understanding Modernism, New York, Bloomsbury Academic, 2018, pp37 - 56, [Hannes Opelz]Book Chapter, 2018
  • Hannes Opelz, L'incitation au mythe: Ténèbres de la mimèsis, L'Esprit créateur, 57, (4), 2017, p50 - 63Journal Article, 2017
  • L'Esprit créateur, 57, 4, (2017), 190 pp.p, Hannes OpelzJournal, 2017
  • L'exhibition in, editor(s)Ginette Michaud & Isabelle Ullern , Sarah Kofman: Philosopher autrement, Paris, Éditions Hermann, 2021, pp315 - 325, [Hannes Opelz]Book Chapter, 2021
  • Michael Holland & Hannes Opelz, Dictionnaire Maurice Blanchot, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2026, 1128 pp.ppBook, 2026
  • Hannes Opelz, Mimetic Annihilation, CounterText, 8, (1), 2022, p177 - 205Journal Article, 2022
  • MLN, 137, 4, (2022), 186 pp.p, Hannes OpelzJournal, 2022
  • Hannes Opelz, Plasticité du dehors, MLN, 137, (4), 2022, p657 - 672Journal Article, 2022
  • Hannes Opelz, Présentation. L'art de Malabou, MLN, 137, (4), 2022, p627 - 636Journal Article, 2022
  • Hannes Opelz & Catherine Malabou, L'avenir de la mimèsis. Entretien avec Catherine Malabou, MLN, 137, (4), 2022, p801 - 813Journal Article, 2022
  • Hannes Opelz, Devs Ex Machina: Quantum Mimesis and the Tragic Rendering of the Real, Injustice, Community & the Digital in Contemporary Francophone Philosophy, Institute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, 5-6 March 2026, 2026Conference Paper, 2026
  • Anat Matar, Hannes Opelz, 'Wittgenstein, Ludwig', Dictionnaire Maurice Blanchot, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2026, 960 - 966Translation, 2026
  • Hannes Opelz, L'espoir d'une communauté, Les Cahiers Maurice Blanchot, (2), 2013, p138-56Review, 2013
  • Hannes Opelz, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, 'Ending and Unending Agony', New York, Fordham University Press, 2015, -Translation, 2015
  • La précipitation du désastre in, editor(s)Isabelle Ullern Pierre Gisel , Penser en commun? Jean-Luc Nancy et Sarah Kofman lecteurs de Blanchot, Paris, Beauchesne, 2015, pp31 - 62, [Hannes Opelz]Book Chapter, 2015

Research Expertise

One question drives my research across literature, philosophy, and film: representation - or mimesis, the technical term in aesthetics - not the copy of a pre-given real but the process by which subjects, communities, and worlds take form. My method is broadly materialist-deconstructive. Its deconstructive frame develops from the French philosopher Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe; its materialism, from his compatriot Catherine Malabou. To each I devoted the first bilingual journal issue (L'Esprit créateur, 2017; MLN, 2022). Both frames converge on art: works are material artefacts whose language and form are experienced as much as deciphered, and deconstruction takes place in that very materiality, not in a speculative beyond. The German philosopher Hans Blumenberg supplies the mythical horizon within and against which these operations unfold.

The first body of work concerns Maurice Blanchot, central to twentieth-century French thought and literature. Its centrepiece is the Dictionnaire Maurice Blanchot (Classiques Garnier, in press, October 2026), co-edited with Michael Holland of Oxford - 1,128 pages, 288 entries, 100-plus contributors: the most comprehensive reference yet produced. Alongside it, my monograph in progress, L'Agonie du mythe (several chapters of which first appeared with Hermann, Bloomsbury, and Beauchesne), argues that Blanchot's writing both dismantles and reactivates the myth-making that underwrites Western aesthetics and its politics.

The second extends the inquiry to representation in science fiction (SF), with a monograph on filmmaker Alex Garland (a chapter in CounterText, 2022) and a co-edited volume rethinking the foundations of SF theory, both in development. Here I further deconstruct the relation between aesthetics and the political as recast by science and technology.

Appearing in French and English, in generalist (Les Temps modernes, Paragraph, MLN, L'Esprit créateur) and specialist journals (Cahiers Maurice Blanchot), my work has drawn published responses from two of contemporary French philosophy's most eminent figures, Jean-Luc Nancy and Catherine Malabou. Transdisciplinary throughout, it is sustained by international invitations, funded doctoral supervision, and two Research Ireland postdoctoral mentorships.

  • Title
    The New Language of Science Fiction: Form and Materiality in Postwar Francophone and Anglophone SF (1959-1976)
    Summary
    Doctoral project led by Giaime Lazzari
    Funding Agency
    Claude and Vincenette Pichois Research Award
    Date From
    2024
    Date To
    2028
  • Title
    Time and the Other Capitalism: The Pasts, Presents and Futures of Work
    Summary
    Postdoctoral project led by Dr Anne Mulhall
    Funding Agency
    Research Ireland (formerly Irish Research Council)
    Date From
    2020
    Date To
    2022
  • Title
    Xenogenesis: Octavia Butler, Gateway for Racial and Gender Aliens at IMMA
    Summary
    Postdoctoral project led by Dr John Wilkins
    Funding Agency
    Research Ireland (formerly Irish Research Council)
    Date From
    2022
    Date To
    2024

Literary studies, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Languages and literature, Humanities and the arts, Other Humanities, History and philosophy of specific fields, Visual arts,

Recognition

  • Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Doctoral Competition Award 2005-2008
  • Benefactors' Scholarship for Doctoral Research, St John's College, Cambridge 2005-2008
  • Austrian National Bank (ÖNB) Scholarship 2003-2004
  • Research Ally Award - Taighde Éireann / Research Ireland 2023-2024
  • Society for French Studies (SFS) present
  • Associations des Amis de Maurice Blanchot present
  • Association des Études Françaises et Francophones d'Irlande (ADEFFI) present