Hotel October: The Deaths and Dates of Jacques Derrida and Walter Benjamin

What is it about?

‘Hotel October’ explores Jacques Derrida’s fascination with dates and how that fascination reveals a secret correspondence, in every sense of the word, with Walter Benjamin – a man who has the same birth-day as Derrida. It is, though, the date of Benjamin’s death and its infamous mise-en-scène, the cheap hotel on the Franco-Spanish border, that dominate ‘Hotel October,’ a text which takes the form of a dramatic monologue delivered by the proprietor, Juan Su ñ e r - a man known to be both a manipulator of dates and, indeed, close to the Gestapo. As the monologue unfolds, Suñer advances an elaborate calendrical re-reading of a host of Derrida texts which probes at the mystery not only of Benjamin’s last night but also of living with both Jewish and Christian calendars. Finally, we see how this last of nights puts under unbearable pressure the infinite promise of both the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday.

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Why is it important?

This is a ficto-critical, or post-critical exploration of the uncanny calendrical correspondence between Derrida and Benjamin. The text hinges upon very specific details surrounding Benjamin's death and the curious circumstances that surround its dating, or mis-dating.

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