"A World Full of Doors": Postapocalyptic Hospitality in Mohsin Hamid's Exit West

Abstract

Abstract:This essay contends that though hospitality is always threatened by its double—hostility—the dire displacement crisis of our time requires that we theorize new forms of solidarity across geopolitical borders. Exit West promotes hospitality by activating links between people on small and large scales and suggests that forging relationships with distant others is a necessary project for a robust planetary community. The novel thereby attunes us to ways in which aesthetic engagements with refugees can critique the criminalization of the worldwide movement of peoples and resuscitate a commitment to hospitality.