By Santiago Rodríguez Guerrero-Strachan, University of Valladolid
We have all seen on the news the caravans of migrants seeking to reach the United States. We have also seen the boats crossing the Mediterranean in the hope of reaching European shores. We have witnessed how Ukrainians had to leave their country because of the war. In some cases, we recall memories of refugee camps set up in Turkey or Greece as a consequence of the Syrian civil war.
There are two indisputable facts: we are all legally equal and have the same rights. If we add the unstoppable globalization of societies to this, it is easy to realize that we need a cosmopolitan perspective whose first right is hospitality, as the Spanish philosopher Adela Cortina has pointed out.
Being Hospitable: With or Without Conditions?
The Prussian Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was one of the first philosophers to show a sincere interest in defining hospitality. In his work Perpetual Peace, he states that the foreigner has the right not to be treated with hostility when arriving in a place that is not his own. In return, he adds, the foreigner must behave peacefully.
One of this approach’s greatest shortcomings is the imposition of very strict limits on people arriving in a country. Even so, it was an important step in the topic’s development, as Kant envisioned the society of the future as a cosmopolitan institution where rootedness and foreignness should coexist thanks to universal rights.
In the 20th century, as a consequence of the great totalitarian movements (fascism, communism, and imperialism), reflection on hospitality became more urgent. Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995), a Jewish philosopher confined in a concentration camp, developed an idea of hospitality that cannot be separated from what he experienced. This idea connected him with refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants.
For Levinas, we all have an obligation to others, as we are not autonomous beings. Our self is linked to that of other people. This means that identity and otherness – the condition of being other – are inseparably linked.
Only by stepping outside ourselves and opening the inner space of our home to others do we become ethical beings. Herein lies hospitality for Levinas. We make our country a hospitable place to live in compassion with others.
Finally, Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) posed the challenges of hospitality in a more radical way. He rejected Kant’s conditional hospitality to advocate for one that is unconditional: we cannot ask foreigners to leave any part of their lives behind. This entails risks for the host society, as it can, in some cases, compromise its very existence.
Aware of the contradictions, Derrida coined the term “hostipitality” to reflect the deep ambivalence of hospitality, simultaneously a duty for the host and a right for the guest.
Hospitality in the United States and Literature
As researchers Ana Manzanas and Jesus Benito have noted, hospitality is related to social space in our time. Thus, the poetics of space studies the relationship between geographical, social place, and citizenship.
Literature is a reflection of society. In it, we find its dominant ideas. It is true that the author does not have to reflect them entirely nor endorse them. In novels, the reader finds a representation of society that is not an identical image of reality. The writer has transformed it to adapt it to their narrative purposes. This can be done because the literary world, which can never be real, only needs to be plausible.
Hospitality is a central theme in much of American literature written by Irish, Latino, or Asian immigrants. In it, the reader finds the difficult social coexistence. It questions the widespread idea that the United States is a land of welcome. Likewise, the authors highlight the problems and prejudices against which immigrants have to struggle daily.
Among the many novels, we can cite The Woman Warrior (1976) by the Chinese-American Maxine Hong Kingston and The House on Mango Street (1984) by Chicana writer Sandra Cisneros.
Another example is the memoirs of African Americans descended from slaves. In them, they narrate how they collided with American society when they left their neighborhoods to interact with white society. They recount how they felt out of place socially and geographically.
Among the many books published, it is worth mentioning I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) by Maya Angelou and Notes of a Native Son (1955) by James Baldwin.
Literature as a Place of Welcome
If, in literature, we find the reflection of hospitality, I propose the notion of literature as a hospitable place. The translations of authors, literary borrowings, and openings to rhythmic sounds typical of other literatures are, among other possibilities, a welcome to other ways of seeing the world.
In national literature, the frequent translation and publication of a foreign author is a sign of the hospitable reception they are given. However, hospitality is not limited to them. The way they see the world and the values they advocate also become part of what is welcomed.
The reception of foreign literature is, ultimately, a way to expand our cultural horizon beyond literature but with its indispensable support.
Santiago Rodriguez Guerrero-Strachan, Professor of American Literature, University of Valladolid
This article was originally published in The Conversation. Read the original.
