Rereading Notions of ‘Reciprocity’ and ‘Hospitality’ in the Work of Martin Buber and Jacques Derrida

Abstract

This text aims to initiate a dialogue between the works of Martin Buber and Jacques Derrida with regard to the notion of ‘reciprocity’. It is my contention that a reexamination of Buber’s notion of relation will reveal a reflection, devoid of any notions of ‘symmetry’, which strongly indicates a point of continuity with Derrida’s late thinking on hospitality. The following text, therefore, aims to provoke a reexamination of Buber’s thinking on the home, at the centre of which stands the notion entirely opposed to ‘symmetry’: namely, ‘reciprocity’. The hypothesis of this text, then, is that when it comes to thinking of dwelling, Buber and Derrida share a ‘relational’ way of thinking, which foregrounds the relation between – in Buber’s case – the relations between man and God, man and man, and man and the Land, and – in Derrida’s case – between guest and host; in addition, I will attempt to show that Derrida’s work on hospitality – in particular, his introduction of a notion of ‘identity’ – produces a necessary contribution, or response, to Buber’s notion of ‘dwelling as reciprocity’. I will conclude by reflecting upon the reciprocity of this dialogue between the work of Martin Buber and Jacques Derrida.