The Green Library 青龍 Blue-Green Dragon
Waiting For The Messiah: Derrida And The Philosophy Of Hospitality (2/1/2021 at 3 Quarks Daily)
It is as though hospitality were the impossible: as though the law of hospitality defined this very impossibility, as if it were only possible to transgress it, as though the law of absolute, unconditional, hyperbolical hospitality, as though the categorical imperative of hospitality commanded that we transgress all the laws (in the plural) of hospitality, namely, the conditions, the norms, the rights and the duties that are imposed on hosts and hostesses, on the men or women who give a welcome as well as the men or women who receive it. And vice versa, it is as though the laws (plural) of hospitality, in marking limits, powers, rights, and duties, consisted in challenging and transgressing the law of hospitality, the one that would command that the “new arrival” be offered an unconditional welcome--Derrida
Course Description
Hospitality is a notion that most people are familiar with. An everyday word for an everyday experience. Why, then, has it become a burning topic in philosophical and political debate in recent decades? Judith Still in her book Derrida and Hospitality suggests reasons for this could include debate surrounding immigration into Europe and elsewhere. It is also loosely connected to issues of colonialism and post-colonialism. And finally, she suggests, there is its co-opting by consumer culture brands and the service industry.
This course is designed to consider the philosophies of hospitality in the work of Derrida, Levinas, and Cixous: French philosophers knew a thing or two about being an outsider. Each hailed from counties outside of France—from North African lands, and in the case of Levinas, Lithuania. In order to understand underlying notions, we will try and understand how these three philosophers themselves navigated issues of inside and outside, native and Other. In addition, as all three thinkers have Jewish backgrounds, we will try and uncover ways hospitality found in the Torah informed their thinking.
As a class, each week we will sit down to a shared meal together. Student grades will be based entirely on the creation and implementation of a shared meal. That’s right, you will be hosting a shared meal at which fellow students will act as guests. During the meal, the host for that week will bring up challenges they faced in the creation of their meal. In the Sikh langur, for example, vegetarian food is prepared. Vegetarianism in the Sikh religion is not mandatory, but vegetarian food is prepared in the communal kitchens to ensure the greatest number of people can partake. Priya Basil in her book, Be My Guest, has written how difficult it was for her to stop serving meat. Not that she likes meat as she is a vegetarian herself. But so ingrained was the notion of “giving the best’ to guests that she worried that she would appear mean or stingy. Students must keep in mind that in many traditional cultures, hospitality is considered a moral virtue and the best foods and beverages are reserved for guests. There are even times when people are willing to go into debt in order to show hospitality.
During the shared meal, student hosts will lead a conversation about their own personal histories of being hosts and guests; their perceived status as insider or outsider; they experience of storytelling, family recipes and shared meals. These conversations should be clearly informed by the class readings, and any other optional reading that students’ engaged with; such that, by the end of the class, we will have compiled a set of case studies.
We will watch the film Babette’s Feast in our last meeting. If time, we will also watch Michael Pollen’s documentary Cooked.
Discuss: The time spent with family and friends around the table is more precious than anything in the world. It does somehow seem sacred or at least what life is and should be about. For as Michael Pollan says in his film, Cooked, “This is more important than people realize.”
Topics to consider:
- What is the role of meals vis-à-vis today’s prevalence of identity creation based on consumer choice and other preferences is not coming at the cost of communal cohesion. This is to discuss what are the obligations of being a guest.
- Compare and contrast the host-guest relationship within the home and between people versus that between nation-states and cultures
- What do we owe refugees? Discuss in terms of Derrida’s Parasite/Guest
- Discuss examples from around the world, ie: The Sikh Langar—where all are welcome to partake in the communal meals and serve in the temple kitchens; Germany’s “We can do this” campaign; storytelling between Palestinian and Israeli youths
- How is “hospitality” related to traditional/religious notions of sacrifice, gift-economies, Heidegger’s notion of “care,” Girard’s “Scapegoat,” and virtue ethics in general?
Main Pedagogies: Embodied Ethics, Deconstructionist, Process
BOOKS
- Priya Basil’s Be My Guest: Reflections on Food, Community and the Meaning of Generosity
- Judith Still, Derrida and Hospitality
- Andrew Shepherd’s The Gift of the Other: Levinas, Derrida, and a Theology of Hospitality
- Of Hospitality: Anne Dufourmantelle Invites Jacques Derrida to Respond (Cultural Memory in the Present) by Jacques Derrida, Anne Dufourmantelle
- Word to Life: A Dialogue between Jacques Derrida and Helene Cixous
- Girard’s Scapegoat
- Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy)
by John D. Caputo
OTHER RESOURCES