French-Algerian philosopher, journalist, and writer (1913?1960)
Albert Camus
(
[2]
kam-
OO
;
French:
[alb??
kamy]
ⓘ
; 7 November 1913 ? 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, journalist,
world federalist
,
[3]
and political activist. He was the recipient of the
1957 Nobel Prize in Literature
at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His works include
The Stranger
,
The Plague
,
The Myth of Sisyphus
,
The Fall
and
The Rebel
.
Camus was born in
Algeria
during the
French colonization
, to
pied-noir
parents. He spent his childhood in a poor neighbourhood and later studied philosophy at the
University of Algiers
. He was in Paris when the
Germans invaded France
during World War II in 1940. Camus tried to flee but finally joined the
French Resistance
where he served as editor-in-chief at
Combat
, an outlawed newspaper. After the war, he was a celebrity figure and gave many lectures around the world. He married twice but had many extramarital affairs. Camus was politically active; he was part of
the left
that opposed
Joseph Stalin
and the
Soviet Union
because of their
totalitarianism
. Camus was a
moralist
and leaned towards
anarcho-syndicalism
. He was part of many organisations seeking
European integration
. During the
Algerian War
(1954?1962), he kept a neutral stance, advocating a multicultural and pluralistic Algeria, a position that was rejected by most parties.
Philosophically, Camus' views contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as
absurdism
. Some consider Camus' work to show him to be an
existentialist
, even though he himself firmly rejected the term throughout his lifetime.
Life and death
[
edit
]
Early years and education
[
edit
]
Albert Camus was born on 7 November 1913 in a working-class neighbourhood in Mondovi (present-day
Drean
), in
French Algeria
. His mother, Catherine Helene Camus (
nee
Sintes
), was French with
Balearic
Spanish ancestry. She was deaf and illiterate.
He never knew his father, Lucien Camus, a poor French agricultural worker killed in action while serving with a
Zouave
regiment in October 1914, during
World War I
. Camus, his mother, and other relatives lived without many basic material possessions during his childhood in the Belcourt section of
Algiers
. Camus was a second-generation French inhabitant of Algeria, which was a French territory from 1830 until 1962. His paternal grandfather, along with many others of his generation, had moved to Algeria for a better life during the first decades of the 19th century. Hence, he was called a
pied-noir
? a slang term for people of French and other European descent born in Algeria. His identity and poor background had a substantial effect on his later life.
Nevertheless, Camus was a French citizen and enjoyed more rights than
Arab
and
Berber
Algerians under
indigenat
.
During his childhood, he developed a love for
football
and
swimming
.
Under the influence of his teacher Louis Germain, Camus gained a scholarship in 1924 to continue his studies at a prestigious
lyceum
(secondary school) near Algiers.
Germain immediately noticed his lively intelligence and his desire to learn. In middle school, he gave Camus free lessons to prepare him for the 1924 scholarship competition ? despite the fact that his grandmother had a destiny in store for him as a manual worker so that he could immediately contribute to the maintenance of the family. Camus maintained great gratitude and affection towards Louis Germain throughout his life and to whom he dedicated his speech for accepting the Nobel Prize. Having received the news of the awarding of the prize, he wrote:
But when I heard the news, my first thought, after my mother, was of you. Without you, without the affectionate hand you extended to the small poor child that I was, without your teaching and example, none of all this would have happened.
[9]
In a letter dated 30 April 1959, Germain lovingly reciprocated the warm feelings towards his former pupil, calling him "my little Camus".
[10]
[11]
In 1930, at the age of 17, he was diagnosed with
tuberculosis
.
Because it is a transmitted disease, he moved out of his home and stayed with his uncle Gustave Acault, a butcher, who influenced the young Camus. It was at that time he turned to philosophy, with the mentoring of his philosophy teacher
Jean Grenier
. He was impressed by
ancient Greek philosophers
and
Friedrich Nietzsche
.
During that time, he was only able to study part time. To earn money, he took odd jobs, including as a private tutor, car parts clerk, and assistant at the Meteorological Institute.
In 1933, Camus enrolled at the
University of Algiers
and completed his
licence de philosophie
(
BA
) in 1936 after presenting his thesis on
Plotinus
.
[13]
Camus developed an interest in early Christian philosophers, but Nietzsche and
Arthur Schopenhauer
had paved the way towards
pessimism
and atheism. Camus also studied novelist-philosophers such as
Stendhal
,
Herman Melville
,
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
, and
Franz Kafka
.
[14]
In 1933, he also met Simone Hie, then a partner of Camus's friend, who later became his first wife.
Camus played
goalkeeper
for the
Racing Universitaire d'Alger
junior team from 1928 to 1930.
The sense of team spirit, fraternity, and common purpose appealed to him enormously.
In match reports, he was often praised for playing with passion and courage. Any football ambitions, however, disappeared when he contracted tuberculosis.
Camus drew parallels among football, human existence, morality, and personal identity. For him, the simplistic morality of football contradicted the complicated morality imposed by authorities such as the state and church.
Formative years
[
edit
]
In 1934, Camus was in a relationship with Simone Hie.
Simone had an addiction to
morphine
, a drug she used to ease her menstrual pains. His uncle Gustave did not approve of the relationship, but Camus married Hie to help her fight the addiction. He subsequently discovered she was in a relationship with her doctor at the same time and the couple later divorced.
Camus joined the
French Communist Party
(PCF) in early 1935. He saw it as a way to "fight inequalities between Europeans and 'natives' in Algeria", even though he was not a
Marxist
. He explained: "We might see communism as a springboard and asceticism that prepares the ground for more spiritual activities." Camus left the PCF a year later.
In 1936, the independence-minded
Algerian Communist Party
(PCA) was founded, and Camus joined it after his mentor Grenier advised him to do so. Camus's main role within the PCA was to organise the
Theatre du Travail
('Workers' Theatre'). Camus was also close to the
Parti du Peuple Algerien
(
Algerian People's Party
[PPA]), which was a moderate anti-colonialist/nationalist party. As tensions in the
interwar period
escalated, the
Stalinist
PCA and PPA broke ties. Camus was expelled from the PCA for refusing to toe the party line. This series of events sharpened his belief in human dignity. Camus's mistrust of bureaucracies that aimed for efficiency instead of justice grew. He continued his involvement with theatre and renamed his group
Theatre de l'Equipe
('Theatre of the Team'). Some of his scripts were the basis for his later novels.
In 1938, Camus began working for the leftist newspaper
Alger republicain
(founded by
Pascal Pia
), as he had strong anti-fascist feelings, and the rise of fascist regimes in Europe was worrying him. By then, Camus had developed strong feelings against authoritarian
colonialism
as he witnessed the harsh treatment of the
Arabs
and Berbers by French authorities.
Alger republicain
was banned in 1940 and Camus flew to Paris to take a new job at
Paris-Soir
as layout editor. In Paris, he almost completed his "first cycle" of works dealing with the absurd and the meaningless ? the novel
L'Etranger
(
The Outsider
[UK] or
The Stranger
[US]), the philosophical essay
Le Mythe de Sisyphe
(
The Myth of Sisyphus
), and the play
Caligula
. Each cycle consisted of a novel, an essay, and a theatrical play.
World War II, Resistance and
Combat
[
edit
]
Soon after Camus moved to Paris, the outbreak of
World War II
began to affect France. Camus volunteered to join the army but was not accepted because he had once had tuberculosis. As the Germans were marching towards Paris, Camus fled. He was laid off from
Paris-Soir
and ended up in
Lyon
, where he married pianist and mathematician
Francine Faure
on 3 December 1940.
Camus and Faure moved back to Algeria (
Oran
), where he taught in primary schools.
Because of his tuberculosis, he moved to the French Alps on medical advice. There he began writing his second cycle of works, this time dealing with revolt ? a novel,
La Peste
(
The Plague
), and a play,
Le Malentendu
(
The Misunderstanding
). By 1943 he was known because of his earlier work. He returned to Paris, where he met and became friends with
Jean-Paul Sartre
. He also became part of a circle of intellectuals, which included
Simone de Beauvoir
and
Andre Breton
. Among them was the actress
Maria Casares
, who later had an affair with Camus.
Camus took an active role in the underground resistance movement against the Germans during the
French Occupation
. Upon his arrival in Paris, he started working as a journalist and editor of the banned newspaper
Combat
. Camus used a pseudonym for his
Combat
articles and used false ID cards to avoid being captured. He continued writing for the paper after the liberation of France,
composing almost daily editorials under his real name.
During that period he composed four
Lettres a un Ami Allemand
('Letters to a German Friend'), explaining why resistance was necessary.
Post?World War II
[
edit
]
After the War, Camus lived in Paris with Faure, who gave birth to twins, Catherine and Jean, in 1945.
Camus was now a celebrated writer known for his role in the Resistance. He gave lectures at various universities in the United States and Latin America during two separate trips. He also visited Algeria once more, only to leave disappointed by the continued oppressive colonial policies, which he had warned about many times. During this period he completed the second cycle of his work, with the essay
L'Homme revolte
(
The Rebel
). Camus attacked
totalitarian
communism while advocating
libertarian socialism
and
anarcho-syndicalism
.
Upsetting many of his colleagues and contemporaries in France with his rejection of
communism
, the book brought about the final split with Sartre. His relations with the Marxist Left deteriorated further during the
Algerian War
.
Camus was a strong supporter of
European integration
in various marginal organisations working towards that end.
In 1944, he founded the {{lang|fr|Comite francais pour la federation europeenne
('French Committee for the European Federation' [CFFE]), declaring that Europe "can only evolve along the path of economic progress, democracy, and peace if the nation-states become a federation."
In 1947?48, he founded the
Groupes de Liaison Internationale
(GLI), a trade union movement in the context of revolutionary
syndicalism
(
syndicalisme revolutionnaire
).
His main aim was to express the positive side of
surrealism
and existentialism, rejecting the negativity and the
nihilism
of Andre Breton. Camus also raised his voice against the
Soviet invasion of Hungary
and the totalitarian tendencies of
Franco
's regime in Spain.
Camus had numerous affairs, particularly an irregular and eventually public affair with the Spanish-born actress
Maria Casares
, with whom he had extensive correspondence.
Faure did not take this affair lightly. She had a mental breakdown and needed hospitalisation in the early 1950s. Camus, who felt guilty, withdrew from public life and was slightly depressed for some time.
In 1957, Camus received the news that he was to be awarded the
Nobel Prize in Literature
. This came as a shock to him; he anticipated
Andre Malraux
would win the award. At age 44, he was the second-youngest recipient of the prize, after
Rudyard Kipling
, who was 42. After this he began working on his autobiography
Le Premier Homme
(
The First Man
) in an attempt to examine "moral learning". He also turned to the theatre once more.
Financed by the money he received with his Nobel Prize, he adapted and directed for the stage Dostoyevsky's novel
Demons
. The play opened in January 1959 at the
Antoine Theatre
in Paris and was a critical success.
During these years, he published posthumously the works of the philosopher
Simone Weil
, in the series "Espoir" ('Hope') which he had founded for
Editions Gallimard
. Weil had great influence on his philosophy,
[36]
[37]
since he saw her writings as an "antidote" to
nihilism
.
[38]
[39]
Camus described her as "the only great spirit of our times".
[40]
Death
[
edit
]
Camus died on 4 January 1960 at the age of 46, in a car accident near
Sens
, in Le Grand Fossard in the small town of
Villeblevin
. He had spent the New Year's holiday of 1960 at his house in
Lourmarin
, Vaucluse with his family, and his publisher
Michel Gallimard
of
Editions Gallimard
, along with Gallimard's wife, Janine, and daughter. Camus's wife and children went back to Paris by train on 2 January, but Camus decided to return in Gallimard's luxurious
Facel Vega FV2
. The car crashed into a
plane tree
on a long straight stretch of the Route nationale 5 (now the
RN 6
or D606). Camus, who was in the passenger seat, died instantly.
Gallimard died five days later, although his wife and daughter were unharmed.
144 pages of a handwritten manuscript entitled
Le premier Homme
('The First Man') were found in the wreckage. Camus had predicted that this unfinished novel based on his childhood in Algeria would be his finest work.
Camus was buried in the Lourmarin Cemetery, Vaucluse, France, where he had lived.
Jean-Paul Sartre read a eulogy, paying tribute to Camus's heroic "stubborn humanism".
William Faulkner
wrote his obituary, saying, "When the door shut for him he had already written on this side of it that which every artist who also carries through life with him that one same foreknowledge and hatred of death is hoping to do: I was here."
[44]
Literary career
[
edit
]
Camus's first publication was a play called
Revolte dans les Asturies
(
Revolt in the Asturias
) written with three friends in May 1936. The subject was the
1934 revolt by Spanish miners
that was brutally suppressed by the Spanish government, resulting in 1,500 to 2,000 deaths. In May 1937 he wrote his first book,
L'Envers et l'Endroit
(
Betwixt and Between
, also translated as
The Wrong Side and the Right Side
). Both were published by
Edmond Charlot
's small publishing house.
Camus separated his work into three cycles. Each cycle consisted of a novel, an essay, and a play. The first was the cycle of the absurd consisting of
L'Etranger
,
Le Mythe de Sysiphe
, and
Caligula
. The second was the cycle of the revolt which included
La Peste
(
The Plague
),
L'Homme revolte
(
The Rebel
), and
Les Justes
(
The Just Assassins
). The third, the cycle of the love, consisted of
Nemesis
. Each cycle was an examination of a theme with the use of a pagan myth and including biblical motifs.
The books in the first cycle were published between 1942 and 1944, but the theme was conceived earlier, at least as far back as 1936.
With this cycle, Camus aimed to pose a question on the
human condition
, discuss the world as an absurd place, and warn humanity of the consequences of totalitarianism.
Camus began his work on the second cycle while he was in Algeria, in the last months of 1942, just as the Germans were reaching North Africa.
In the second cycle, Camus used
Prometheus
, who is depicted as a revolutionary humanist, to highlight the nuances between revolution and rebellion. He analyses various aspects of rebellion, its metaphysics, its connection to politics, and examines it under the lens of modernity,
historicity
, and the absence of a God.
After receiving the Nobel Prize, Camus gathered, clarified, and published his pacifist leaning views at
Actuelles III: Chronique algerienne 1939?1958
(
Algerian Chronicles
). He then decided to distance himself from the Algerian War as he found the mental burden too heavy. He turned to theatre and the third cycle which was about love and the goddess
Nemesis
, the Greek and Roman goddess of Revenge.
Two of Camus's works were published posthumously. The first entitled
La mort heureuse
(
A Happy Death
) (1971) is a novel that was written between 1936 and 1938. It features a character named Patrice Mersault, comparable to
The Stranger
'
s Meursault. There is scholarly debate about the relationship between the two books. The second was an unfinished novel,
Le Premier homme
(
The First Man
, published in 1994), which Camus was writing before he died. It was an autobiographical work about his childhood in Algeria and its publication in 1994 sparked a widespread reconsideration of Camus's allegedly unrepentant colonialism.
Works of Camus by genre and cycle,
according to Matthew Sharpe
Years
|
Pagan myth
|
Biblical motif
|
Novel
|
Plays
|
1937?42
|
Sisyphus
|
Alienation, exile
|
The Stranger
(
L'Etranger
)
|
Caligula
,
The Misunderstanding
(
Le Malentendu
)
|
1943?52
|
Prometheus
|
Rebellion
|
The Plague
(
La Peste
)
|
The State of Siege
(
L'Etat de siege
)
The Just
(
Les Justes
)
|
1952?58
|
|
Guilt, the fall; exile & the kingdom;
John the Baptist, Christ
|
The Fall
(
La Chute
)
|
Adaptations of
The Possessed
(Dostoevsky);
Faulkner's
Requiem for a Nun
|
1958?
|
Nemesis
|
The Kingdom
|
The First Man
(
Le Premier Homme
)
|
|
Political stance
[
edit
]
Camus was a
moralist
; he claimed morality should guide politics. While he did not deny that morals change over time, he rejected the classical Marxist view that historical material relations define morality.
Camus was also strongly critical of
Marxism?Leninism
, especially in the case of the Soviet Union, which he considered
totalitarian
. Camus rebuked those sympathetic to the Soviet model and their "decision to call total servitude freedom".
A proponent of
libertarian socialism
, he stated that the Soviet Union was not socialist and the United States was not liberal.
His critique of the Soviet Union caused him to clash with others on the political left, most notably with his on-again/off-again friend Jean-Paul Sartre.
Active in the
French Resistance
to the Nazi occupation of France during World War II, Camus wrote for and edited the Resistance journal
Combat
. Of the
French collaboration
with the German occupiers, he wrote: "Now the only moral value is courage, which is useful here for judging the puppets and chatterboxes who pretend to speak in the name of the people."
After France's liberation, Camus remarked: "This country does not need a
Talleyrand
, but a
Saint-Just
."
The reality of the
postwar tribunals
soon changed his mind: Camus publicly reversed himself and became a lifelong opponent of capital punishment.
Camus had
anarchist
sympathies, which intensified in the 1950s, when he came to believe that the Soviet model was morally bankrupt.
Camus was firmly against any kind of exploitation, authority, property, the State, and centralization.
However, he opposed revolution, separating the
rebel
from the
revolutionary
and believing that the belief in "absolute truth", most often assuming the guise of history or reason, inspires the revolutionary and leads to tragic results.
[60]
He believed that rebellion is spurred by our outrage over the world's lack of transcendent significance, while political rebellion is our response to attacks against the dignity and autonomy of the individual.
[60]
Camus opposed
political violence
, tolerating it only in rare and very narrowly defined instances, as well as
revolutionary terror
which he accused of sacrificing innocent lives on the altar of history.
[61]
Philosophy professor David Sherman considers Camus an
anarcho-syndicalist
.
Graeme Nicholson
considers Camus an existentialist anarchist.
The anarchist
Andre Prudhommeaux
first introduced him at a meeting of the
Cercle des Etudiants Anarchistes
('Anarchist Student Circle') in 1948 as a sympathiser familiar with anarchist thought. Camus wrote for anarchist publications such as
Le Libertaire
('The Libertarian'),
La Revolution proletarienne
('The Proletarian Revolution'), and
Solidaridad Obrera
('Workers' Solidarity'), the organ of the anarcho-syndicalist
Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo
(CNT, 'National Confederation of Labor').
Camus kept a neutral stance during the
Algerian Revolution
(1954?1962). While he was against the violence of the
National Liberation Front
(FLN), he acknowledged the injustice and brutalities imposed by colonialist France. He was supportive of
Pierre Mendes France
's
Unified Socialist Party
(PSU) and its approach to the crisis; Mendes France advocated for reconciliation. Camus also supported a like-minded Algerian militant,
Aziz Kessous
. Camus traveled to Algeria to negotiate a truce between the two belligerents but was met with distrust by all parties.
In one, often misquoted incident, Camus confronted an Algerian critic during his 1957 Nobel Prize acceptance speech in Stockholm, rejecting the false equivalence of justice with revolutionary terrorism: "People are now planting bombs in the tramways of Algiers. My mother might be on one of those tramways. If that is justice, then I prefer my mother."
[66]
Critics have labelled the response as reactionary and a result of a colonialist attitude.
Camus was sharply critical of the
proliferation of nuclear weapons
and the
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
.
In the 1950s, Camus devoted his efforts to human rights. In 1952, he resigned from his work for
UNESCO
when the UN accepted Spain, under the leadership of the
caudillo
General
Francisco Franco
, as a member.
Camus maintained his pacifism and resisted capital punishment anywhere in the world. He wrote an essay against capital punishment in collaboration with
Arthur Koestler
, the writer, intellectual, and founder of the League Against Capital Punishment entitled
Reflexions sur la peine capitale
('Reflections on Capital Punishment'), published by
Calmann-Levy
in 1957.
Along with
Albert Einstein
, Camus was one of the sponsors of the
Peoples' World Convention
(PWC), also known as Peoples' World Constituent Assembly (PWCA), which took place between 1950 and 1951 at Palais Electoral in
Geneva
, Switzerland.
[71]
[72]
Role in Algeria
[
edit
]
Born in Algeria to French parents, Camus was familiar with the
institutional racism
of France against Arabs and Berbers, but he was not part of a rich elite. He lived in very poor conditions as a child, but was a citizen of France and as such was entitled to citizens' rights; members of the country's Arab and Berber majority were not.
Camus was a vocal advocate of the "new Mediterranean Culture". This was his vision of embracing the multi-ethnicity of the Algerian people, in opposition to "Latiny", a popular pro-fascist and
antisemitic
ideology among other
pieds-noirs
? French or Europeans born in Algeria. For Camus, this vision encapsulated the Hellenic humanism which survived among ordinary people around the Mediterranean Sea.
His 1938 address on "The New Mediterranean Culture" represents Camus's most systematic statement of his views at this time. Camus also supported the
Blum?Viollette proposal
to grant Algerians full
French citizenship
in a manifesto with arguments defending this assimilative proposal on radical egalitarian grounds.
In 1939, Camus wrote a stinging series of articles for the
Alger republicain
on the atrocious living conditions of the inhabitants of the
Kabylie
highlands. He advocated for economic, educational, and political reforms as a matter of emergency.
In 1945, following the
Setif and Guelma massacre
after Arabs revolted against French mistreatment, Camus was one of only a few mainland journalists to visit the colony. He wrote a series of articles reporting on conditions and advocating for French reforms and concessions to the demands of the Algerian people.
When the Algerian War began in 1954, Camus was confronted with a moral dilemma. He identified with the
pieds-noirs
such as his own parents and defended the French government's actions against the revolt. He argued the Algerian uprising was an integral part of the "new
Arab imperialism
" led by Egypt and an "anti-Western" offensive orchestrated by Russia to "encircle Europe" and "isolate the United States".
Although favoring greater Algerian
autonomy
or even federation, though not full-scale independence, he believed the
pieds-noirs
and Arabs could co-exist. During the war, he advocated a civil truce that would spare the civilians. It was rejected by both sides who regarded it as foolish. Behind the scenes, he began working for imprisoned Algerians who faced the death penalty.
His position drew much criticism from the left and later postcolonial literary critics, such as
Edward Said
, who were opposed to European imperialism, and charged that Camus's novels and short stories are plagued with colonial depictions ? or conscious erasures ? of Algeria's Arab population.
In their eyes, Camus was no longer the defender of the oppressed.
Camus once said that the troubles in Algeria "affected him as others feel pain in their lungs".
Philosophy
[
edit
]
Existentialism
[
edit
]
Even though Camus is mostly connected to
absurdism
,
he is routinely categorized as an
existentialist
, a term he rejected on several occasions.
Camus himself said his philosophical origins lay in ancient Greek philosophy, Nietzsche, and 17th-century moralists, whereas existentialism arose from 19th- and early 20th-century philosophy such as
Søren Kierkegaard
,
Karl Jaspers
, and
Martin Heidegger
.
He also said his work,
The Myth of Sisyphus
, was a criticism of various aspects of existentialism.
Camus rejected existentialism as a philosophy, but his critique was mostly focused on
Sartrean
existentialism and ? though to a lesser extent ? on religious existentialism. He thought that the importance of history held by Marx and Sartre was incompatible with his belief in human freedom.
David Sherman and others also suggest the rivalry between Sartre and Camus also played a part in his rejection of existentialism.
David Simpson argues further that his humanism and belief in human nature set him apart from the existentialist doctrine that
existence precedes essence
.
On the other hand, Camus focused most of his philosophy around existential questions. The absurdity of life and that it inevitably ends in death is highlighted in his acts. His belief was that the absurd ? life being void of meaning, or man's inability to know that meaning if it were to exist ? was something that man should embrace. His opposition to Christianity and his commitment to individual moral freedom and responsibility are only a few of the similarities with other existential writers.
Camus addressed one of the fundamental questions of existentialism: the problem of suicide. He wrote: "There is only one really serious philosophical question, and that is suicide."
[91]
Camus viewed the question of suicide as arising naturally as a solution to the absurdity of life.
Absurdism
[
edit
]
Many existentialist writers have addressed the Absurd, each with their own interpretation of what it is and what makes it important. Kierkegaard suggests that the absurdity of religious truths prevents people from reaching God rationally.
Sartre recognizes the absurdity of individual experience. Camus's thoughts on the Absurd begin with his first cycle of books and the literary essay
The Myth of Sisyphus
, his major work on the subject. In 1942, he published the story of a man living an absurd life in
The Stranger
. He also wrote
a play
about the Roman emperor
Caligula
, pursuing an absurd logic, which was not performed until 1945. His early thoughts appeared in his first collection of essays,
Betwixt and Between
, in 1937. Absurd themes were expressed with more sophistication in his second collection of essays,
Noces
(
Nuptials
) in 1938. In these essays, Camus reflects on the experience of the Absurd.
Aspects of the notion of the Absurd can also be found in
The Plague
.
Camus follows Sartre's definition of the Absurd: "That which is meaningless. Thus man's existence is absurd because his contingency finds no external justification".
The Absurd is created because man, who is placed in an unintelligent universe, realises that human values are not founded on a solid external component; as Camus himself explains, the Absurd is the result of the "confrontation between human need and the unreasonable silence of the world".
Even though absurdity is inescapable, Camus does not drift towards
nihilism
. But the realization of absurdity leads to the question: Why should someone continue to live? Suicide is an option that Camus firmly dismisses as the renunciation of human values and freedom. Rather, he proposes we accept that absurdity is a part of our lives and live with it.
The turning point in Camus's attitude to the Absurd occurs in a collection of four letters to an anonymous German friend, written between July 1943 and July 1944. The first was published in the
Revue Libre
in 1943, the second in the
Cahiers de Liberation
in 1944, and the third in the newspaper
Libertes
, in 1945. The four letters were published as
Lettres a un ami allemand
('Letters to a German Friend') in 1945, and were included in the collection
Resistance, Rebellion, and Death
.
Camus regretted the continued reference to himself as a "philosopher of the absurd". He showed less interest in the Absurd shortly after publishing
The Myth of Sisyphus
. To distinguish his ideas, scholars sometimes refer to the Paradox of the Absurd, when referring to "Camus's Absurd".
Revolt
[
edit
]
Camus articulated the case for revolting against any kind of oppression, injustice, or whatever disrespects the human condition. He is cautious enough, however, to set the limits on the rebellion.
The Rebel
explains in detail his thoughts on the issue. There, he builds upon the absurd, described in
The Myth of Sisyphus
, but goes further. In the introduction, where he examines the metaphysics of rebellion, he concludes with the phrase "I revolt, therefore we exist" implying the recognition of a common human condition.
Camus also delineates the difference between revolution and rebellion and notices that history has shown that the rebel's revolution might easily end up as an oppressive regime; he therefore places importance on the morals accompanying the revolution.
Camus poses a crucial question: Is it possible for humans to act in an ethical and meaningful manner in a silent universe? According to him, the answer is yes, as the experience and awareness of the Absurd creates the moral values and also sets the limits of our actions.
Camus separates the modern form of rebellion into two modes. First, there is the metaphysical rebellion, which is "the movement by which man protests against his condition and against the whole of creation". The other mode, historical rebellion, is the attempt to materialize the abstract spirit of metaphysical rebellion and change the world. In this attempt, the rebel must balance between the evil of the world and the intrinsic evil which every revolt carries, and not cause any unjustifiable suffering.
Legacy
[
edit
]
Camus's novels and philosophical essays are still influential. After his death, interest in Camus followed the rise ? and diminution ? of the
New Left
. Following the
collapse of the Soviet Union
, interest in his alternative road to communism resurfaced.
He is remembered for his skeptical humanism and his support for political tolerance, dialogue, and civil rights.
Although Camus has been linked to anti-Soviet communism, reaching as far as anarcho-syndicalism, some
neoliberals
have tried to associate him with their policies; for instance, the French President
Nicolas Sarkozy
suggested that his remains be moved to the
Pantheon
, an idea that was criticised by Camus's surviving family and angered many on the Left.
American heavy metal band
Avenged Sevenfold
stated that their album
Life Is But a Dream...
was inspired by the work of Camus.
[106]
Albert Camus also served as the inspiration for the Aquarius Gold Saint Camus in the classic anime and manga
Saint Seiya
.
[107]
Tributes
[
edit
]
In
Tipasa
, Algeria, inside the Roman ruins, facing the sea and Mount Chenoua, a
stele
was erected in 1961 in honor of Albert Camus with this phrase in French extracted from his work
Noces a Tipasa
: "I understand here what is called glory: the right to love beyond measure" (
French
:
Je comprends ici ce qu'on appelle gloire : le droit d'aimer sans mesure
).
[108]
The French Post published a stamp with his likeness on 26 June 1967.
[109]
Works
[
edit
]
The works of Albert Camus include:
Novels
[
edit
]
- A Happy Death
(
La Mort heureuse
; written 1936?38, published 1971)
- The Stranger
(
L'Etranger
, often translated as
The Outsider
, though an alternate meaning of
l'etranger
is 'foreigner'; 1942)
- The Plague
(
La Peste
, 1947)
- The Fall
(
La Chute
, 1956)
- The First Man
(
Le premier homme
; incomplete, published 1994)
Short stories
[
edit
]
- Exile and the Kingdom
(
L'exil et le royaume
; collection, 1957), containing the following short stories:
Academic theses
[
edit
]
Non-fiction
[
edit
]
- Betwixt and Between
(
L'envers et l'endroit
, also translated as
The Wrong Side and the Right Side
; collection, 1937)
- Nuptials
(
Noces
, 1938)
- The Myth of Sisyphus
(
Le Mythe de Sisyphe
, 1942)
- The Rebel
(
L'Homme revolte
, 1951)
- Algerian Chronicles
(
Chroniques algeriennes
; 1958, first English translation published 2013)
- Resistance, Rebellion, and Death
(collection, 1961)
- Notebooks 1935?1942
(
Carnets, mai 1935 ? fevrier 1942
, 1962)
- Notebooks 1942?1951
(
Carnets II: janvier 1942-mars 1951
, 1965)
- Lyrical and Critical Essays
(collection, 1968)
- American Journals
(
Journaux de voyage
, 1978)
- Notebooks 1951?1959
(2008). Published as
Carnets Tome III: Mars 1951 ? December 1959
(1989)
- Correspondence (1944?1959)
The correspondence of Albert Camus and
Maria Casares
, with a preface by his daughter, Catherine (2017)
Plays
[
edit
]
Essays
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Schrift, Alan D. (2010).
"French Nietzscheanism"
(PDF)
. In Schrift, Alan D. (ed.).
Poststructuralism and Critical Theory's Second Generation
. The History of Continental Philosophy. Vol. 6. Durham, UK: Acumen. pp. 19?46.
ISBN
978-1-84465-216-7
.
- ^
"Camus"
.
Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
.
- ^
Leinen, Jo; Bummel, Andreas.
"A Democratic World Parliament"
(PDF)
.
democracywithoutborders.com
. pp. 1, 2
. Retrieved
12 January
2024
.
- ^
Camus, Albert.
"Albert Camus Wins the Nobel Prize & Sends a Letter of Gratitude to His Elementary School Teacher (1957)"
. Retrieved
7 January
2024
.
- ^
"I embrace you with all my heart ? Letters of Note"
.
lettersofnote.com
. 7 November 2013
. Retrieved
7 January
2024
.
- ^
"Lettre de Monsieur Germain a Albert Camus"
[Letter of Mister Germain to Albert Camus].
compagnieaffable.com
(in French). 4 October 2015
. Retrieved
9 January
2024
.
- ^
Sherman 2009
, p. 11: Camus's thesis was titled "Rapports de l'hellenisme et du christianisme a travers les oeuvres de Plotin et de saint Augustin" ('Relationship of Greek and Christian Thought in Plotinus and St. Augustine') for his
diplome d'etudes superieures
(roughly equivalent to an
MA
thesis).
- ^
Simpson 2019
, Background and Influences.
- ^
Jeanyves GUERIN, Guy BASSET (2013).
Dictionnaire Albert Camus
. Groupe Robert Laffont.
ISBN
978-2-221-14017-8
.
- ^
Bunn, Philip D. (2 January 2022).
"Transcendent Rebellion: The Influence of Simone Weil on Albert Camus' Esthetics"
.
Perspectives on Political Science
.
51
(1): 35?43.
doi
:
10.1080/10457097.2021.1997529
.
ISSN
1045-7097
.
S2CID
242044336
.
- ^
Stefan Skrimshire, 2006, A Political Theology of the Absurd? Albert Camus and Simone Weil on Social Transformation,
Literature and Theology
, Volume 20, Issue 3, September 2006, Pages 286?300
- ^
Rik Van Nieuwenhove, 2005, Albert Camus, Simone Weil and the Absurd,
Irish Theological Quarterly
, 70, 343
- ^
John Hellman (1983).
Simone Weil: An Introduction to Her Thought
. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. pp. 1?23.
ISBN
978-0-88920-121-7
.
- ^
Jensen, Morten Høi (1 January 2021).
"Without God or Reason"
.
Commonweal
. Retrieved
2 April
2022
.
- ^
a
b
Moses, Michael (2022).
"Liberty's Claims on Man and Citizen in the Life and Writings of Albert Camus"
.
Institute for Humane Studies
. Archived from
the original
on 7 December 2021.
- ^
Simpson, David.
"Albert Camus"
.
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
.
- ^
Scialabba, George (April 2013).
"Resistance, Rebellion, and Writing"
.
Bookforum
. Retrieved
8 August
2021
.
- ^
Einstein, Albert; Nathan, Otto; Norden, Heinz (1968).
Einstein on peace
. Internet Archive. New York, Schocken Books. pp. 539, 670, 676.
- ^
"[Carta] 1950 oct. 12, Geneve, [Suiza] [a] Gabriela Mistral, Santiago, Chile [manuscrito] Gerry Kraus"
.
BND: Archivo del Escritor
. Retrieved
19 October
2023
.
- ^
"You cannot give coherence to murder if you refuse it to suicide. A spirit penetrated by the idea of the absurd undoubtedly admits the murder of fatality, but would not be able to accept the murder of reasoning. In comparison, murder and suicide are one and the same thing, which must be taken or left together."
L'Homme revolte
[
The Rebel
] (in French). Paris: Gallimard. 1951. p. 17.
- ^
"AVENGED SEVENFOLD Announces 'Life Is But a Dream...' Album, Shares 'Nobody' Music Video"
.
Blabbermouth
. 14 March 2023.
- ^
"Aquarius Camus: 5 Facts+ All you Need to Know"
. Retrieved
19 October
2023
.
- ^
"Au sujet de la stele de Camus dans les ruines de Tipaza"
.
- ^
"La Poste"
.
Sources
[
edit
]
- Amin, Nasser (2021).
"The Colonial Politics of the Plague: Reading Camus in 2020"
.
Journal of Contemporary Development & Management Studies
. 9 Spring 2021: 28?38.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 9 October 2022.
- Aronson, Ronald (2004).
Camus and Sartre: The Story of a Friendship and the Quarrel that Ended it
.
University of Chicago Press
.
ISBN
978-0-22602-796-8
.
- Aronson, Ronald (2017).
"Albert Camus"
. In
Edward N. Zalta
(ed.).
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
.
- Bernstein, Richard (19 December 1997).
"BOOKS OF THE TIMES; Camus as a Principled Rebel Among Poseurs"
.
The New York Times
.
Archived
from the original on 10 May 2006.
- Bloom, Harold
(2009).
Albert Camus
.
Infobase Publishing
.
ISBN
978-1-4381-1515-3
.
- Bronner, Stephen Eric
(2009).
Camus: Portrait of a Moralist
.
University of Chicago Press
.
ISBN
978-0-226-07567-9
.
- Carroll, David (4 May 2007).
Albert Camus the Algerian: Colonialism, Terrorism, Justice
.
Columbia University Press
.
ISBN
978-0-231-51176-6
.
- Carroll, Sean B. (2013).
Brave Genius: A Scientist, a Philosopher, and Their Daring Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize
. New York: Crown.
ISBN
978-0-307-95234-9
.
- Clarke, Liam (2009). "Football as a metaphor: learning to cope with life, manage emotional illness and maintain health through to recovery".
Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing
.
16
(5).
Wiley
: 488?492.
doi
:
10.1111/j.1365-2850.2009.01403.x
.
ISSN
1351-0126
.
PMID
19538606
.
- Cohn, Robert Greer (1986). "The True Camus".
The French Review
.
60
(1): 30?38.
JSTOR
393607
.
- Curtis, Jerry L. (1 August 1972). "The absurdity of rebellion".
Man and World
.
5
(3): 335?348.
doi
:
10.1007/bf01248640
.
ISSN
0025-1534
.
S2CID
144571561
.
- Dunwoodie, Peter (1993). "Albert Camus and the Anarchist Alternative".
Australian Journal of French Studies
.
30
(1). Liverpool University Press: 84?104.
doi
:
10.3828/ajfs.30.1.84
.
ISSN
0004-9468
.
- Foley, John (2008).
Albert Camus: From the Absurd to Revolt
.
McGill-Queen's University Press
.
ISBN
978-0-7735-3467-4
.
- Hayden, Patrick (9 February 2016).
Camus and the Challenge of Political Thought: Between Despair and Hope
.
Springer
.
doi
:
10.1057/9781137525833
.
ISBN
978-1-137-52583-3
.
- Hughes, Edward J. (26 April 2007).
The Cambridge Companion to Camus
. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN
978-1-139-82734-8
.
- Lattal, Ashley (1995).
"Albert Camus"
. Users.muohio.edu
. Retrieved
17 October
2009
.
- Lottman, Herbert
(1979).
Albert Camus: A Biography
. Axis.
ISBN
978-1-870845-12-0
.
- Marshall, Peter H.
(1993).
Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism
.
Fontana
.
ISBN
978-0-00-686245-1
.
- Nicholson, Graeme
(1971).
"Camus and Heidegger: Anarchists"
.
University of Toronto Quarterly
.
41
: 14?23.
doi
:
10.3138/utq.41.1.14
.
S2CID
154840020
. Archived from
the original
on 4 May 2019
. Retrieved
4 May
2019
.
- Schaffner, Alain (2006). Agnes Spiquel (ed.).
Albert Camus: l'exigence morale : hommage a Jacqueline Levi-Valensi (L'esprit des lettres)
(in French). Editions Le Manuscrit.
ISBN
978-2-7481-7101-3
.
- Sharpe, Matthew (3 September 2015).
Camus, Philosophe: To Return to our Beginnings
.
Brill
.
ISBN
978-90-04-30234-1
.
- Sherman, David (30 January 2009).
Camus
. John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN
978-1-4443-0328-5
.
- Simpson, David (2019).
"Albert Camus (1913?1960)"
.
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
.
ISSN
2161-0002
.
- Todd, Olivier
(2000).
Albert Camus: A Life
.
Carroll & Graf
.
ISBN
978-0-7867-0739-3
.
- Willsher, Kim (7 August 2011).
"Albert Camus might have been killed by the KGB for criticising the Soviet Union, claims newspaper"
.
The Guardian
.
- Zaretsky, Robert (2018).
"
'No Longer the Person I Was': The Dazzling Correspondence of Albert Camus and Maria Casares"
.
Los Angeles Review of Books
.
- Zaretsky, Robert (7 November 2013).
Life Worth Living
.
Harvard University Press
.
ISBN
978-0-674-72837-0
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
Selected biographies
[
edit
]
- Thody, Philip Malcolm Waller
(1957).
Albert Camus: A Study of His Work
.
Hamish Hamilton
.
- Brisville, Jean-Claude
(1959).
Camus
.
Gallimard
.
- Parker, Emmett (1965).
Albert Camus: The Artist in the Arena
.
Univ of Wisconsin Press
.
ISBN
978-0-299-03554-9
.
- King, Adele
(1964).
Albert Camus
.
Grove Press
.
- McCarthy, Patrick.
Camus: A Critical Study of His Life and Work
. Hamish Hamilton.
ISBN
978-0-241-10603-7
.
- Sprintzen, David (February 1991).
Camus: A Critical Examination
.
Temple University Press
.
ISBN
978-0-87722-827-1
.
- King, Adele
(12 June 1992).
Camus's L'Etranger: Fifty Years on
.
Palgrave Macmillan
UK.
ISBN
978-1-349-22003-8
.
- Bloom, Harold
(2009).
Albert Camus
.
Infobase Publishing
.
ISBN
978-1-4381-1515-3
.
- Pierre Louis Rey (2006).
Camus: l'homme revolte
. Gallimard.
ISBN
978-2-07-031828-5
.
- Hawes, Elizabeth
(2009).
Camus, a Romance
.
Grove Press
.
ISBN
978-0-8021-1889-9
.
External links
[
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]
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