Conditions of Hospitality

Thomas Claviez is Professor of Literary Theory at the University of Bern. He is the author of Grenzfälle: Mythos— Ideologie— American Studies (1998) and Aesthetics and Ethics: Otherness and Moral Imagination from Aristotle to Levinas and from "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to "House Made of Dawn" (2008). He has published essays on pragmatism, ecology, American studies, American literature, ethics and aesthetics, and Native American literature.

"The book proves to be valuable to researchers, students and teachers in the field of Hospitality Studies and is a substantial contribution to our understanding of the extent to which 'conditions' of hospitality emerged as a new academic field in the twenty-first century." -- -Arleen Ionescu Word and Text "A timely constellation of trenchant statements on one of the most ancient and most sacred human conventions. In an increasingly inhospitable world, this is an opportune and eloquent volume on hospitality as institution, as political act, and as ethical practice. An invaluable touchstone for interdisciplinary study of the subject." -- -Djelal Kadir Pennsylvania State University "This volume does something new with hospitality, reanimating and redeploying it in ethical, political, and aesthetic directions. Its effect is prismatic: It brings together and then reflects, refracts, and redistributes hospitality across the intellectual spectrum of philosophy, political theory, and cultural studies." -- -William Robert Syracuse University "Globalization has brought us instant forms of communication and diverse networks of connectivity. But has it made us better neighbours to each other? Have we evolved new ethical and political forms of hospitality to accompany the crossing of borders, the subduing of national and regional sovereignties, as we take our first, faltering steps towards an international civil society? These essays raise questions fundamental to our political condition. But they do more than that. They make a compelling case for an aesthetic and ethical enhancement of our sense of political rights and responsibilities." -- -Homi K. Bhabha Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University