Merle A. Williams – författare

This collection of imaginative essays traces notions of hospitality across a sequence of theoretical permutations, not only as an urgent challenge for our conflicted present, but also as foundational for ethics and resonant within the play of language. The plural form of the title highlights the inter-implication of hospitality with its exclusive others, holding suspicious rejection in tension with the receptiveness that transforms socio-cultural relations. Geographically, the collection traverses the globe from Australia and Africa to Britain, Europe and the United States, weaving exchanges from south to north, as well as south to south, and thoughtfully remapping our world. Temporally, the chapters range from the primordial hospitality offered by the earth, through the Middle Ages, to contemporary detention centres and the crisis of homelessness. Thematically, hospitality embraces sites of dwelling and the land, humans and animals in their complex embodiment, spectres and the dead, dolls and art objects.This text openly welcomes the reader to participate in shaping fresh critical discourses of the hospitable, whether in literary and linguistic studies, art and architecture, philosophy or politics.

This collection of imaginative essays traces notions of hospitality across a sequence of theoretical permutations, not only as an urgent challenge for our conflicted present, but also as foundational for ethics and resonant within the play of language. The plural form of the title highlights the inter-implication of hospitality with its exclusive others, holding suspicious rejection in tension with the receptiveness that transforms socio-cultural relations. Geographically, the collection traverses the globe from Australia and Africa to Britain, Europe and the United States, weaving exchanges from south to north, as well as south to south, and thoughtfully remapping our world. Temporally, the chapters range from the primordial hospitality offered by the earth, through the Middle Ages, to contemporary detention centres and the crisis of homelessness. Thematically, hospitality embraces sites of dwelling and the land, humans and animals in their complex embodiment, spectres and the dead, dolls and art objects.This text openly welcomes the reader to participate in shaping fresh critical discourses of the hospitable, whether in literary and linguistic studies, art and architecture, philosophy or politics.

The rapid global spread of populism has become an arresting and often disturbing phenomenon in the opening decades of the twenty-first century. This collection of essays explores the complex histories and diverse geographies of populist activity, examining its manifestations on both the political left and the right while tracing its dangerous association with nativism, racism and xenophobia. Established socio-political theories are questioned and challenged, giving way to fresh philosophical or cultural perspectives. At the heart of this collection lies a concern with the capacity of the humanities – and especially literary studies – to interpret, evaluate and intervene in this populist moment. Literary discussion ranges from Henry James and William Faulkner to Toni Morrison, David Foster Wallace, Ali Smith and Ta-Nehisi Coates. These essays demonstrate the pertinence and value of enquiries from multiple perspectives if we are to come to terms with the impact of populist rhetoric on meaning and truth, as proliferating misinformation unmoors conceptual and ethical coherence. The chapters in this book were originally published in Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies and English Studies in Africa.

The rapid global spread of populism has become an arresting and often disturbing phenomenon in the opening decades of the twenty-first century. This collection of essays explores the complex histories and diverse geographies of populist activity, examining its manifestations on both the political left and the right while tracing its dangerous association with nativism, racism and xenophobia. Established socio-political theories are questioned and challenged, giving way to fresh philosophical or cultural perspectives. At the heart of this collection lies a concern with the capacity of the humanities – and especially literary studies – to interpret, evaluate and intervene in this populist moment. Literary discussion ranges from Henry James and William Faulkner to Toni Morrison, David Foster Wallace, Ali Smith and Ta-Nehisi Coates. These essays demonstrate the pertinence and value of enquiries from multiple perspectives if we are to come to terms with the impact of populist rhetoric on meaning and truth, as proliferating misinformation unmoors conceptual and ethical coherence. The chapters in this book were originally published in Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies and English Studies in Africa.

Henry James and the Philosophical Novel examines James's unique position as a philosophical novelist, closely associated with the climate of ideas generated by his brother, William and his father, the elder Henry. The book offers a detailed consideration of story-telling as a mode of philosophical enquiry, showing how a range of distinguished thinkers have relied on fictional narrative as a vital technique for formulating and clarifying their ideas. At the same time, it investigates (with close reference to his novels) the affiliations between James's practice as a novelist and the epistemological, moral and linguistic concerns pursued by members of the Phenomenological movement. The study brings to light striking similarities between James's later works and the philosophical project of Merleau-Ponty; it emphasises James's growing attraction to and versatility with deconstructive strategies such as those later employed by Jacques Derrida.