French Literature Reviews - 2026

The Duty of Hospitality
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas

Giorgio Agamben and Hervé Le Tellier are reissuing in the "Tracts" collection (Gallimard) the Defense of the Crime of Hospitality, delivered by Alexandre Grothendieck in 1978 in defense of a French citizen accused of offering hospitality to another. Read an excerpt…

As a reminder, you can read in Acta Fabula Odile Gannier's review of the essay by Georges Didi-Huberman and Niki Giannari, Passer, quoi qu’il en coûte: "The Passersby of Idomeni," as well as Carole Wahnoun's article dedicated to the publication of Jacques Derrida's seminar on Hospitality: "Welcoming in Question."

(Illustration: The Hospitality of Abraham Receiving the Three Angels, detail of the fresco in the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna © CC/Petar Milošević)

The text centers on a 1978 legal defense written by the mathematician Alexandre Grothendieck, who argued on behalf of a French citizen facing prosecution for providing shelter to an individual in need. Giorgio Agamben and Hervé Le Tellier are reissuing this document in the Tracts collection (Gallimard).

Discussions regarding the ethics of welcoming have long occupied a significant place in contemporary French thought, often intersecting with broader inquiries into sovereignty, borders, and human rights. Readers interested in the philosophical and political dimensions of hospitality may find this historical document relevant.