Questions of the Foreigner in Of Hospitality

This article examines Derrida’s use of untranslatables as a tool for teaching in his seminars. Focusing specifically on two related clusters of terms that appear in the seminar sessions published in Of Hospitality—xenos/étranger/foreigner and hostis/hôte/host/guest—the author shows how Derrida uses untranslatable terms as a pedagogical device to enhance his students’ philosophical understanding, thus providing instructors with a model of a plurilingual pedagogical practice that can be followed in their own teaching of philosophy.