Introduction to the Doctoral Seminar "Fictions of Hospitality in Comparison"

22 Setembro 2016, 10:00 • Susana Isabel Arsenio Nunes Costa Araujo


We discussed the aims of the seminar, and its approach to "Hospitality" -- a comparative/cultural studies perspective.

The teaching methodologies and  the evaluation system were clarified.

We briefly addressed the following topics, which will be discussed in relation to specific texts:

a) Images of Home(s) and Home_lands

b) Hospitality and Cosmopolitanism

c) The Law (and the laws) of hospitality

d) The gender(s) of hosting: women as gifts and homosociality

e) Imperial and Colonial Legacies and post-colonial hosts

f) Political host(ages), politics and policies of hosting

g) Securing the Home: between borderlands and homelands


We examined the syllabus and calendar, taking into consideration the bibliography for each week.

The students scheduled their presentations. The roles of discussant (1 comment per student) need to be scheduled in forthcoming seminars.

Definitions of Hospitality were attempted. References to hospitality in Ancient Greece were presented as references to later debates on hospitality.
Derrida's centrality in the discussion of this topic was discussed in the context of the 70s in France and the debate about "les sans papiers."
 
Issues of pairs/doubles/binomials of Hospitality were discussed in connection to Derrida's Aporia; "the Law of hospitality and the laws of hospitality"