Derrida and Hospitality: Theory and Practice

Judith Still

Share |

February, 2011
Cloth, 256 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-7486-4027-0
Edinburgh University Press
$120.00

The subject of hospitality, critical to the writings of Jacques Derrida, offers a unique framework for analyzing the interactions among individuals and the (often inhospitable) response to outsiders, such as refugees or migrants. This volume marks the first full-length study of hospitality in Derridean thought. It particularly focuses on the thread of sexual difference, which sheds light on Derrida's exploration of the complex, delicate, strange yet familiar dance of being both good host and guest. Judith Still sets Derrida's writings among a series of contexts, including the sociopolitical history of France, especially its relationship with Algeria, and the philosopher's association with other writers, most famously Hélène Cixous and Emmanuel Levinas, who were themselves key thinkers on hospitality.

Related Subjects

• Continental/Feminist Philosophy

About the Author

Judith Still is professor of French and critical theory at the University of Nottingham.

top of page