Hospitality Amongst Strangers

This monograph researches the spatial dimension of the Derridean concept of hospitality through analyzing the cinematic representation of hospitable space. Three European films form the basis for this analysis, Dirty Pretty Things (UK: Stephen Frears, 2003), Le Grand Voyage (France: Ismael Ferroukhi, 2004) and Exils (France: Tony Gatlif, 2004). In these three films fellow travellers or migrants come to rely upon each other for hospitality, instead of being the guests of their native host. Through an interdisciplinary cross-section hospitality is combined with the notion of place from the discipline of anthropology; the concept of borders from cultural analysis; and the theory of homelessness from comparative literature studies. By doing so the concept itself is opened up for a different approach and becomes itself subject of hospitality in other disciplines. This monograph is interesting for scholars in the field of cultural studies who are interested in the definition of hospitable space, or anyone wishing to learn more about the subject.