本文試結合禮物致贈和待客之道，討論其在經典文學作品和人類學記錄中，隱含對文明發展及個人主體的省思。禮物實踐的弔詭和難題，自人類學家摩斯（Marcel Mauss）以來，到文學批評學者德希達（Jacques Derrida），屢在當代不同學科引發興趣。禮物的經濟效益似乎直接挑戰命題本身，搖擺於權宜交換的迷思和禮物的形上真諦。待客之道，則屬當代法國哲學家列維納斯（Emmanuel Levinas）的倫理思想中心。列維納斯認為待客之道隱喻無限可能的化身，能解套傳統主體為上的僵局，亦為主體對未知／上帝的責任。德希達將之援引，同視為（不）可能任務。在此脈絡下，本文試圖在不同文本／文明間對照，探究禮物和待客之道所指之善行本質，超越的欲望，及與他人／它者互動的界限辯證。所用方法主要為重新闡述西方文明重要來源之《聖經》，文藝復興時期莎士比亞四大悲劇中的《李爾王》，以及作為西方文明它者的泛伊斯蘭文學遺產《一千零一夜》。本文認為，以顯在(present/presence)為軸的人文精神，其先驗的暴力特質，一方面淋漓表現於禮物(gift/present)及待客之道；一方面正因這不可迴避的暴力和超越可能性(possibility)恆使文學作品以禮物和待客之道作為生命常軌之外的轉折點，彷彿是作家和學者對於智識外的不可計算(uncalculated economy)，以不可能(the impossibility, the absolute other)的踪跡(the trace)形式，留下對彼在(there is)／他者(the other)的悅納(welcome)。

The themes of hospitality and gift-giving in literature oftentimes pass unnoticed by literary critics because the themes seem to be so naturally embedded in literature that perhaps an event of murder might interest the critics more. But hospitality and gift-giving are important because, as part of our living experience and with the possibility of going beyond the logic of exchange and altruism, hospitality and gift-giving subtly reveal to us the eternal concerns of astonishment, death, God, violence, and human relations. In this respect, hospitality and gift-giving radically challenge our conception of subjectivity.
The following dissertation which consists of my collection of thoughts is therefore, metaphorically, a tangent touching, or better yet, approaching yet without appropriating the other in the postmodern philosophical context. My interpretation of “the absolute other” aims to make an argument that actions of hospitality and gift-giving, albeit without the acknowledgement of the subject, exhibit the desire of approaching “the absolute other” and simultaneously acknowledge the limit of subjectivity. In this attempt to lay open the interrelationships between hospitality and gift-giving by illustrating the “otherness” in subjectivity, responsibility, and God “the absolute other,” I draw from various sources in philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and Lacanian psychoanalysis. Through review of these multiple sources I contend that genuine hospitality and gift-giving can give rise to various levels of meanings to the absolute alterity of otherness. The selected literary texts under the discussion respectively are: the Bible, King Lear, and the Arabian Nights. The reasoning behind this choice is an intention to comprehend the otherness across cultural boundaries. I examine the Bible to contend for the Hebraic tradition and Pauline Christianity, King Lear the renaissance enlightenment, and the Arabian Nights the Western other.