Interruptions: Derrida and Hospitality

ome in. Welcome. Be my guest and I will be yours. Shall we ask, in accordance with the Derridean question, “Is not hospitality an interruption of the self?” 1 What is the relationship between the interruption and the moment one enters the host’s home? Derrida calls us toward a new understanding of hospitality—as an interruption. This paper will illuminate the history of hospitality in the West as well as trace Derrida’s discussions of hospitality throughout many of works. The overall goal of this project is to provide readers of Derrida with a sort of reference guide for his discussions on and deconstructive approach to hospitality. Throughout most of Derrida’s work, there lurks an oasis of hospitality, sometimes on the verge of the horizon. At other times, it shines in the foreground. It is in these shining moments that we—both host and guest— will venture in order to grasp the foundation of Derrida’s thoughts on hospitality. Only then will we clearly see the horizon. This new understanding of hospitality requires a rethinking of the laws of common, conditional hospitality in contrast with the law, or perhaps we should say ethics, of unconditional hospitality. Hent de Vries comments on this relationship: “Absolute hospitality . . . and the hospitality of rights and laws . . . must always exist in a relation of subordination, or justification, with one enabling the other.”2