Like the multicultural space of New York through which the narrator of Open City wanders, Teju Cole´s novel can also be regarded as an expansive dialogue with different types of texts, theories, discourses, languages and writers. Within this framework, Kwame Anthony Appiah´s Cosmopolitanism constitutes one of these instances. In this case, Appiah´s essay dialogues with the Anti-Western ideology that had been previously expressed by Farouq, a character defined by Julius as a radical, the image of a young Vito Corleone, “one of the thwardted ones” (129). On the contrary, the narrator articulates some of the ideas manifested in Cosmopolitanism such as his disapproval of fundamentalisms or his emphasis on pluralism. In particular, the obligation towards the others becomes a central concern in both texts. In Open City, this issue is explicitly formulated in a number of chapters, particularly regarding the suffering of the others. Even from the beginning, Julius conveys his distress when he finds out that the woman next door has been dead for weeks: “I had not known nothing in the weeks when her husband mourned, nothing when I had nodded to him […] I had not noticed not seeing her around” (21). The suffering of others is tackled throughout the novel, becoming particularly relevant with respect to collective traumas, like 9/11, the Holocaust, Haiti, Nigeria or the genocide in Rwanda. These collective traumas can be interpreted as a starting point in order to delve into the relations with others and the creation of the imaginary communities that are interrogated throughout Cole´s work.

The significance of layers leads the narrator to identify the multiple levels that comprise cities like New York or Brussels, personal and collective stories, history or different subjectivities. The connection between self and the others is problematized in different ways. To start with, the representation of different characters trying to establish some kind of identification with Julius due to their sharing of an allegedly common origin questions the grounds on which identity politics lies. Instead of identifying as a Nigerian or as an African, Julius feels emotionally detached from these strangers, contributing to the implosion of the imaginary community. While in America he is being “interpellated” to recognise himself as “Nigerian” or “African”, this category proves to be narrow and reductive at best. “The name Julius linked me to another place and was, with my passport and my skin color, one of the intensifiers of my sense of being different, of being set apart, in Nigeria” (78). Nevertheless, even though the recognition in those cases is unilateral, Julius cannot avoid being part of this community. Furthermore, Julius learns to cope with the fact that the self is partly the product of others´ s projections, desires and identifications.

On the other hand, not only is the idea of an “African” or “Nigerian” identity questioned, but Julius also demonstrates that identities can never be conceived as monolithic. In fact, the novel undertakes different journeys, both physical displacements around New York and Brussels and the imaginary journeys that take the narrator back to Nigeria or Germany. Displacement -more specifically, migration- is precisely where I consider that Open City diverges from Cosmopolistanism. Cole´s fiction problematizes globalization, offering a critical analysis that is missing in Appiah´s essay. This is remarkable in the case of Saidu´s story. Even if Julius seems to mock the idea of the emphatic listener and refuses to visit Saidu again, he tells his story, which is in itself an ethical act.

Through Saidu´s story, the most brutal side of globalization is exposed. Open City unmasks how the free market, the free exchange of ideas and images does not concur with freedom of mobility as far as human beings are concerned. Images of the West circulate around the world, but individuals´ mobility is constrained and strictly regulated. It is tragic that Saidu´s image of America as the country of freedom urges him to embark on a journey that will come to an end when he is in imprisoned on his arrival at JFK airport. This story raises an issue that Cosmopolitanism does not fully address. Appiah refers to criticisms on globalization centered on the erasure of local cultures, but he overlooks the material approach that could provide a larger picture. In so doing he fails to address central issues, such as the unequal balance of power established between countries, extreme poverty or oppression. To conclude, even if Open City, unlike Cosmopolitanism, is a work of fiction, its ultimate goal is not necessarily to articulate ethical principles, I personally consider that it succeeds in its representation of the problems raised by globalization.