Abstract/Summary

Do I honour the work or the person? And if I honour the person, how do I then honour the work? These questions have preoccupied me for some time, and they are brought sharply into focus in the work and person of Timothy Mathews. The etymologies of the term are disputed but indicative – honor from the Old French, honestus from the Latin, and onus, a moral weight or duty. In Greek, it is filotimo – a love of values, worth, and esteem. And this is where my intervention in this volume sits most comfortably: in the space between the sensuous space of a love of art, and an understanding of its values. In writing about honour, I am also thinking about the creative practice of honouring tied up in critical writing; a practice deeply embedded in Mathews’ own writing and work.