Hospitality 3

As a effort to encourage revolutionary thought, I propose that the changes in the project, the adjustments to curriculum and personnel, the ways that we interact with each other, the kind of preparation we offer our students are all moments of what Elenore Kaufman calls intellectual hospitality.

In The Delerium of Praise, Kaufman develops the definition of intellectual hospitality following her in-depth examination of the scholarly and textual interaction between five French scholars: Bataille, Blanchot, Deleuz, Foucault and Klossowski. This interaction, one that did not necessarily enjoy either personal or live connections – it took place over a space of fifty years, between some folks who never met and via literary journals rather than real life – occurs in what she labels as the "laudatory essay." For Kaufman, it is the moment of praise, of recognition, in the writings, that signifies intellectual hospitality. Critical examination of her final chapter of the Delerium makes clear that there are three main features of intellectual hospitality:

1. That it is reciprocal,
2. That it is different than gift giving, and
3. Tthat it is about following and then, ultimately, breaking all the rules of said hospitality.