Le Dire de l'hospitalité (review)

This collection of essays, the fruit of a conference held in Montreal, is the latest in a distinguished series of writings on hospitality published under the guidance of Alain Montandon. Despite the title, a number of the articles included are more interested in the hospitality of language than the language of hospitality, particularly in the opening section of essays. In their focus on the former, the figures of Levinas and Derrida loom large over the opening essays of this collection. The influence of Derrida's later writings on hospitality, is omnipresent in this volume, and provides the inspiration for some excellent linguistico-cultural analysis. Most notable in this respect is Anne Tomiche's stimulating and persuasive study of parasitism in and of language, in an essay that adduces sources ranging from Boileau to Burroughs. The use of Derrida is less inspired elsewhere in the collection, however, in some rather predictable demonstrations of the slipperiness of the language of hospitality, and equally predictable discussions of the conceptual ambiguity of the host (hospis/hostes) become a recurring topos of their own in this collection. Generally, however, this volume provides an unusually rich and varied collection of writings on hospitality, ranging from Proust to the colonial and postcolonial. For all the ground that is covered here, the main audience for this volume will certainly, however, be those with interests in postcolonial studies. Gide's unquestioning acceptance of colonial logic, as demonstrated by Michel Beniamino's fascinating essay, and Camus's late Algerian writings provide an intriguing counterpoint to Josias Semujanga's exploration of the theme of alterity in Les Corps glorieux des mots et des êtres, an autobiographical work by the Congolese philosopher, Valentin-Yves Mudimbe, and Lise Gauvin's examination of bilingualism in the work of the Moroccan critic and novelist, Abdelkebir Khatibi. This African corpus is complemented by a number of essays devoted to French Canadian literature and film. Alongside a subtle dissection of the theme of the Other in Québecois cinema, and of hospitality in the theatre of Montreal playwright Wajdi Mouawad, is a revealing insight into 1953, chronique d'une naissance annoncée, by the contemporary Acadian novelist, France Daigle. Although this collection may seem disparate as well as diverse in the ground it attempts to cover, there are sufficient riches here to justify the eclectic mix. Montandon's own contribution, an erudite analysis of the function of silence in transactions between host and guest in stories by Vercors, Camus and Barbey d'Aurevilly, is worth the €23 alone.