The ceiba tree of memory and the Derridian principle of hospitality

Abstract

This article is based on a comparison between literature and philosophy to understand violence and hostility in Burgos Cantor’s La ceiba de la memoria as a product of the absence of hospitality following Derrida’s definition of this term. I argue that all the characters of Burgos Cantor’s novel are foreigners and all that are subdued are not considered human beings and that is why they are mistreated. In this relationship between hospitality and hostility that occurs between the one that receives the foreigner and this one is inverted in the novel being the Spanish people influenced and transformed by characters like Dominica Orellana and Benkos Bioho. Likewise, this article points out that the novel ultimately highlights that the tragedy and the pain suffered by some individuals throughout history is what unites us within the notion of the humane. In
this sense, the novel incites an ethical reflection in which the only conclusion possible is that we have a huge responsibility with the victims of the past and of our present.