The Boundaries of Spatial Separation: The Concept of Hospitality in the Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas

• Main Author: Edna Langenthal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece 2019-12-01
• Series: Ex-centric Narratives: Journal of Anglophone Literature, Culture and Media
• Online Access: http://ejournals.lib.auth.gr/ExCentric/article/view/7030

This paper seeks to enrich our ethical understanding of the built environment, planning, and urban policy by drawing on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, particularly his concept of hospitality. Levinas maintains that hospitality has an ethical meaning since it entails welcoming the other into one's home while simultaneously respecting his strangeness. However, being hospitable puts the host in a vulnerable state vis-a-vis his guest. This ethical insight leads us to question the significance of the façade of a building as a flat exterior that frames or represents the contents of a building. Although Levinas does not explicitly make this connection, I argue that the facade preserves the tension between the tendency of the house to draw its inhabitants inwards, and the event of welcoming a guest, who is introduced from the outside. This double movement suggests that the facade is a boundary. Boundaries are places of tension and conflict; however, these very qualities present the opportunity for the facade to be a space of hospitality.