Albert Camus
Overview
André Breton
André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
.
Camus was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times".
Unanswered Questions
Quotations
We have exiled beauty; the Greeks took up arms for her.
"Helen's Exile" (1948)
We turn our backs on nature; we are ashamed of beauty. Our wretched tragedies have a smell of the office clinging to them, and the blood that trickles from them is the color of printer's ink.
"Helen's Exile" (1948)
Man cannot do without beauty, and this is what our era pretends to want to disregard. It steels itself to attain the absolute and authority; it wants to transfigure the world before having exhausted it, to set it to rights before having understood it. Whatever it may say, our era is deserting this world.
"Helen's Exile" (1948)
O light! This is the cry of all the characters of ancient drama brought face to face with their fate. This last resort was ours, too, and I knew it now. In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer.
Return to Tipasa (1952)
A character is never the author who created him. It is quite likely, however, that an author may be all his characters simultaneously.
As quoted in Albert Camus : The Invincible Summer (1958) by Albert Maquet, p. 86; a remark made about the Marquis de Sade.
With rebellion, awareness is born.
As quoted in The Estranged God : Modern Man's Search for Belief (1966) by Anthony T. Padovano, p. 109
A living man can be enslaved and reduced to the historic condition of an object. But if he dies in refusing to be enslaved, he reaffirms the existence of another kind of human nature which refuses to be classified as an object.
"The Failing of Prophecy" in Existentialism Versus Marxism : Conflicting Views on Humanism (1966) by George Edward Novack
There is not love of life without despair about life.
Preface, Lyrical and Critical Essays (1970)
Encyclopedia
Albert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton
.
Camus was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times". He was the second-youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, after Rudyard Kipling
, and the first African-born writer to receive the award. He is the shortest-lived of any Nobel literature laureate to date, having died in an automobile accident just over two years after receiving the award.
Although often cited as a proponent of existentialism
, the philosophy with which Camus was associated during his own lifetime, he rejected this particular label. In an interview in 1945, Camus rejected any ideological associations: "No, I am not an existentialist. Sartre
and I are always surprised to see our names linked..."
Specifically, his views contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as absurdism
. He wrote in his essay "The Rebel" that his whole life was devoted to opposing the philosophy of nihilism
while still delving deeply into individual freedom.
(then known as Mondovi) in French Algeria
to a Pied-Noir
settler family. Pied-Noir was a term used to refer to European colonists of French Algeria until Algerian independence
in 1962. His mother was of Spanish descent and was half-deaf. His father Lucien, a poor agricultural worker, died in the Battle of the Marne
in 1914 during World War I
, while serving as a member of the Zouave
infantry regiment. Camus and his mother lived in poor conditions during his childhood in the Belcourt section of Algiers
.
In 1923, the bright boy was accepted into the lycée and eventually he was admitted to the University of Algiers
. After he contracted tuberculosis
(TB) in 1930, he had to end his football activities (he had been a goalkeeper for the university team) and reduce his studies to part-time. To earn money, he also took odd jobs: as private tutor, car parts clerk and assistant at the Meteorological Institute. He completed his licence de philosophie (BA) in 1935; in May 1936, he successfully presented his thesis on Plotinus
, Néo-Platonisme et Pensée Chrétienne (Neo-Platonism and Christian Thought), for his diplôme d'études supérieures (roughly equivalent to an M.A.
thesis).
Camus joined the French Communist Party
in the spring of 1935, seeing it as a way to "fight inequalities between Europeans and 'natives' in Algeria." He did not suggest he was a Marxist or that he had read Das Kapital, but did write that "[w]e might see communism as a springboard and asceticism that prepares the ground for more spiritual activities." In 1936, the independence-minded Algerian Communist Party
(PCA) was founded. Camus joined the activities of the Algerian People's Party
(Le Parti du Peuple Algérien), which got him into trouble with his Communist party comrades. As a result, in 1937 he was denounced as a Trotskyite
and expelled from the party. Camus went on to be associated with the French anarchist
movement.
The anarchist André Prudhommeaux
first introduced him at a meeting in 1948 of the Cercle des Étudiants Anarchistes (Anarchist Student Circle) as a sympathiser familiar with anarchist thought. Camus wrote for anarchist publications such as Le Libertaire, La révolution Proletarienne and Solidaridad Obrera
(Workers' Solidarity, the organ of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT
(National Confederation of Labor)). Camus stood with the anarchists when they expressed support for the uprising of 1953 in East Germany
. He again allied with the anarchists in 1956, first in support of the workers’ uprising in Poznań
, Poland, and then later in the year with the Hungarian Revolution.
In 1934, he married Simone Hie, a morphine
addict, but the marriage ended as a consequence of infidelities on both sides. In 1935, he founded Théâtre du Travail (Worker's Theatre), renamed Théâtre de l'Equipe (Team's Theatre) in 1937. It lasted until 1939. From 1937 to 1939 he wrote for a socialist paper, Alger-Républicain. His work included an account of the peasants who lived in Kabylie
in poor conditions, which apparently cost him his job. From 1939 to 1940, he briefly wrote for a similar paper, Soir-Republicain. He was rejected by the French army because of his TB.
In 1940, Camus married Francine Faure
, a pianist and mathematician. Although he loved her, he had argued passionately against the institution of marriage, dismissing it as unnatural. Even after Francine gave birth to twins, Catherine and Jean, on 5 September 1945, he continued to joke to friends that he was not cut out for marriage. Camus conducted numerous affairs, particularly an irregular and eventually public affair with the Spanish-born actress Maria Casares
. In the same year, Camus began to work for Paris-Soir
magazine. In the first stage of World War II
, the so-called Phoney War, Camus was a pacifist
. In Paris during the Wehrmacht occupation, on 15 December 1941, Camus witnessed the execution of Gabriel Péri
; it crystallized his revolt against the Germans. He moved to Bordeaux
with the rest of the staff of Paris-Soir. In the same year he finished his first books, The Stranger
and The Myth of Sisyphus
. He returned briefly to Oran
, Algeria in 1942.
cell Combat
, which published an underground newspaper of the same name. This group worked against the Nazis, and in it Camus assumed the nom de guerre
Beauchard. Camus became the paper's editor in 1943 and was in Paris when the Allies liberated the city, where he reported on the last of the fighting. Soon after the event on 6 August 1945, he was one of the few French editors to publicly express opposition to the United States' dropping the atomic bomb in Hiroshima
. He resigned from Combat in 1947 when it became a commercial paper. It was then that he became acquainted with Jean-Paul Sartre.
After the war, Camus began frequenting the Café de Flore
on the Boulevard Saint-Germain
in Paris with Sartre and others. He also toured the United States to lecture about French thought. Although he leaned left
, politically, his strong criticisms of Communist doctrine did not win him any friends in the Communist parties
and eventually alienated Sartre.
In 1949 his TB returned and Camus lived in seclusion for two years. In 1951 he published The Rebel, a philosophical analysis of rebellion and revolution which expressed his rejection of communism. Upsetting many of his colleagues and contemporaries in France, the book brought about the final split with Sartre. The dour reception depressed him and he began to translate plays.
Camus's first significant contribution to philosophy was his idea of the absurd. He saw it as the result of our desire for clarity and meaning within a world and condition that offers neither, which he expressed in The Myth of Sisyphus
and incorporated into many of his other works, such as The Stranger
and The Plague
. Despite his split from his "study partner", Sartre, some still argue that Camus falls into the existentialist camp. He specifically rejected that label in his essay "Enigma" and elsewhere (see: The Lyrical and Critical Essays of Albert Camus). The current confusion arises in part because many recent applications of existentialism have much in common with many of Camus's practical ideas (see: Resistance, Rebellion, and Death). But, his personal understanding of the world (e.g. "a benign indifference", in The Stranger
), and every vision he had for its progress (e.g. vanquishing the "adolescent furies" of history and society, in The Rebel) undoubtedly set him apart.
In the 1950s Camus devoted his efforts to human rights
. In 1952 he resigned from his work for UNESCO
when the UN accepted Spain as a member under the leadership of General Franco
. In 1953 he criticized Soviet
methods to crush a workers' strike in East Berlin
. In 1956 he protested against similar methods in Poland (protests in Poznań
) and the Soviet repression of the Hungarian revolution in October.
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.
When the Algerian War began in 1954, Camus was confronted with a moral dilemma. He identified with the pied-noir
s such as his own parents and defended the French government's actions against the revolt. He argued that 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 favouring greater Algerian autonomy
or even federation, though not full-scale independence, he believed that the pied-noirs and Arabs could co-exist. During the war he advocated a civil truce that would spare the civilians, which was rejected by both sides, who regarded it as foolish. Behind the scenes, he began to work for imprisoned Algerians who faced the death penalty.
From 1955 to 1956, Camus wrote for L'Express
. In 1957 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature
"for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times", not for his novel The Fall, published the previous year, but for his writings against capital punishment in the essay "Réflexions sur la Guillotine
" (Reflections on the Guillotine). When he spoke to students at the University of Stockholm, he defended his apparent inactivity in the Algerian question; he stated that he was worried about what might happen to his mother, who still lived in Algeria. This led to further ostracism by French left-wing intellectuals.
His colleagues were Nicolas Lazarévitch, Louis Mercier, Roger Lapeyre, Paul Chauvet, Auguste Largentier, Jean de Boë (see the article: "Nicolas Lazarévitch, Itinéraire d'un syndicaliste révolutionnaire" by Sylvain Boulouque in the review Communisme, n° 61, 2000). His main aim was to express the positive side of surrealism
and existentialism, rejecting the negativity and the nihilism
of André Breton.
From 1943, Albert Camus had correspondence with Altiero Spinelli
who founded the European Federalist Movement in Milan—see Ventotene Manifesto
and the book "Unire l'Europa, superare gli stati", Altiero Spinelli nel Partito d'Azione del Nord Italia e in Francia dal 1944 al 1945-annexed a letter by Altiero Spinelli to Albert Camus.
In 1944 Camus founded the "French Committee for the European Federation" (Comité Français pour la Féderation Européene – CFFE) declaring that Europe "can only evolve along the path of economic progress, democracy and peace if the nation states become a federation."
From 22–25 March 1945, the first conference of the European Federalist Movement was organised in Paris with the participation of Albert Camus, George Orwell, Emmanuel Mounier
, Lewis Mumford
, André Philip
, Daniel Mayer
, François Bondy
and Altiero Spinelli (see the book The Biography of Europe by Pan Drakopoulos). This specific branch of the European Federalist Movement disintegrated in 1957 after Winston Churchill
's ideas about the European integration rose to dominance.
, in Le Grand Fossard in the small town of Villeblevin
. In his coat pocket lay an unused train ticket. He had planned to travel by train with his wife and children, but at the last minute he accepted his publisher's proposal to travel with him.
The driver of the Facel Vega
car, Michel Gallimard, his publisher and close friend, also died in the accident. In August 2011, the Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera
reported a theory that the writer had been the victim of a Soviet plot, but Camus biographer Olivier Todd did not consider it credible. Camus was buried in the Lourmarin Cemetery, Lourmarin
, Vaucluse, France.
He was survived by his wife and twin children, Catherine and Jean, who hold the copyrights to his work.
Two of Camus's works were published posthumously. The first, entitled A Happy Death
(1970), featured a character named Patrice Mersault, comparable to The Stranger
' s Meursault. There is scholarly debate as to the relationship between the two books. The second was an unfinished novel, The First Man
(1995), which Camus was writing before he died. The novel was an autobiographical work about his childhood in Algeria
.
His early thoughts appeared in his first collection of essays, L'Envers et l'endroit (The Two Sides Of The Coin) 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. In 1942 he published the story of a man living an absurd life as L'Étranger (The Stranger)
. In the same year he released Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus)
, a literary essay on the Absurd. He also wrote a play about Caligula
, a Roman Emperor, pursuing an absurd logic. The play was not performed until 1945.
The turning point in Camus' 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 Libération in 1944, and the third in the newspaper Libertés, in 1945. The four letters were published as Lettres à un ami allemand (Letters to a German Friend) in 1945, and were included in the collection Resistance, Rebellion, and Death
.
In Le Mythe, Camus suggests that 'creation of meaning', would entail a logical leap or a kind of philosophical suicide in order to find psychological comfort. But Camus wants to know if he can live with what logic and lucidity has uncovered – if one can build a foundation on what one knows and nothing more. Creation of meaning is not a viable alternative but a logical leap and an evasion of the problem. He gives examples of how others would seem to make this kind of leap. The alternative option, namely suicide, would entail another kind of leap, where one attempts to kill absurdity by destroying one of its terms (the human being). Camus points out, however, that there is no more meaning in death than there is in life, and that it simply evades the problem yet again. Camus concludes, that we must instead 'entertain' both death and the absurd, while never agreeing to their terms.
Meursault, the absurdist hero of L'Étranger, has killed a man and is scheduled to be executed. Caligula ends up admitting his absurd logic was wrong and is killed by an assassination he has deliberately brought about. However, while Camus possibly suggests that Caligula's absurd reasoning is wrong, the play's anti-hero does get the last word, as the author similarly exalts Meursault's final moments.
Camus made a significant contribution to a viewpoint of the Absurd, and always rejected nihilism as a valid response.
Camus' understanding of the Absurd promotes public debate; his various offerings entice us to think about the Absurd and offer our own contribution. Concepts such as cooperation, joint effort and solidarity are of key importance to Camus, though they are most likely sources of 'relative' versus 'absolute' meaning.
and Saint Augustine of Hippo
, Camus became very strongly influenced by their works, especially that of St. Augustine. In his work, Confessions (consisting of 13 books), Augustine promotes the idea of a connection between God and the rest of the world. Camus identified with the idea that a personal experience could become a reference point for his philosophical and literary writings. Although he considered himself an atheist, Camus later came to tout the idea that the absence of religious belief can simultaneously be accompanied by a longing for "salvation and meaning". This line of thinking presented an ostensible paradox and became a major thread in defining the idea of absurdism in Camus' writings.
in its many forms. Early on, Camus was active within the French Resistance to the German occupation of France during World War II, even directing the famous Resistance journal, Combat. On the French collaboration with Nazi 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 liberation, Camus remarked, "This country does not need a Talleyrand, but a Saint-Just." The reality of the bloody postwar tribunals soon changed his mind: Camus publicly reversed himself and became a lifelong opponent of capital punishment
.
Camus' well-known falling out with Sartre is linked to this opposition to totalitarianism. Camus detected a reflexive totalitarianism in the mass politics
espoused by Sartre in the name of radical Marxism
. This was apparent in his work L'Homme Révolté (The Rebel) which not only was an assault on the Soviet police state, but also questioned the very nature of mass revolutionary politics. Camus continued to speak out against the atrocities of the Soviet Union
, a sentiment captured in his 1957 speech, The Blood of the Hungarians, commemorating the anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution
, an uprising crushed in a bloody assault by the Red Army.
Camus played as goalkeeper for Racing Universitaire d'Alger
(RUA won both the North African Champions Cup
and the North African Cup
twice each in the 1930s) junior team from 1928–30. The sense of team spirit, fraternity, and common purpose appealed to Camus enormously. In match reports Camus would often attract positive comment for playing with passion and courage. Any aspirations in football disappeared at age 17, upon contracting tuberculosis—then incurable, Camus was bedridden for long and painful periods.
When Camus was asked in the 1950s by an alumni sports magazine for a few words regarding his time with the RUA, his response included the following:
Camus was referring to a sort of simplistic morality he wrote about in his early essays, the principle of sticking up for your friends, of valuing bravery and fair-play. Camus' belief was that political and religious authorities try to confuse us with over-complicated moral systems to make things appear more complex than they really are, potentially to serve their own needs.
André Breton
André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
.
Camus was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times". He was the second-youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, after Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
, and the first African-born writer to receive the award. He is the shortest-lived of any Nobel literature laureate to date, having died in an automobile accident just over two years after receiving the award.
Although often cited as a proponent of existentialism
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
, the philosophy with which Camus was associated during his own lifetime, he rejected this particular label. In an interview in 1945, Camus rejected any ideological associations: "No, I am not an existentialist. Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
and I are always surprised to see our names linked..."
Specifically, his views contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as absurdism
Absurdism
In philosophy, "The Absurd" refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any...
. He wrote in his essay "The Rebel" that his whole life was devoted to opposing the philosophy of nihilism
Nihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
while still delving deeply into individual freedom.
Early years
Albert Camus was born on 7 November 1913 in DréanDrean
Dréan is a small coastal town in Algeria, 25 km south of Annaba, in El Taref Province. In has a population of about 40,000. The author Albert Camus was born there during the French rule in Algeria when it was known as Mondovi. It is the capital of Dréan District....
(then known as Mondovi) in French Algeria
French rule in Algeria
French Algeria lasted from 1830 to 1962, under a variety of governmental systems. From 1848 until independence, the whole Mediterranean region of Algeria was administered as an integral part of France, much like Corsica and Réunion are to this day. The vast arid interior of Algeria, like the rest...
to a Pied-Noir
Pied-noir
Pied-Noir , plural Pieds-Noirs, pronounced , is a term referring to French citizens of various origins who lived in French Algeria before independence....
settler family. Pied-Noir was a term used to refer to European colonists of French Algeria until Algerian independence
Nationalism and resistance in Algeria
-Algerian nationalism:A new generation of Muslim leadership emerged in Algeria at the time of World War I and grew to maturity during the 1920s and 1930s. It consisted of a small but influential class of évolués, other Algerians whose perception of themselves and their country had been shaped by...
in 1962. His mother was of Spanish descent and was half-deaf. His father Lucien, a poor agricultural worker, died in the Battle of the Marne
First Battle of the Marne
The Battle of the Marne was a First World War battle fought between 5 and 12 September 1914. It resulted in an Allied victory against the German Army under Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke the Younger. The battle effectively ended the month long German offensive that opened the war and had...
in 1914 during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, while serving as a member of the Zouave
Zouave
Zouave was the title given to certain light infantry regiments in the French Army, normally serving in French North Africa between 1831 and 1962. The name was also adopted during the 19th century by units in other armies, especially volunteer regiments raised for service in the American Civil War...
infantry regiment. Camus and his mother lived in poor conditions during his childhood in the Belcourt section of Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
.
In 1923, the bright boy was accepted into the lycée and eventually he was admitted to the University of Algiers
University of Algiers
The University of Algiers Benyoucef Benkhedda is a university located in Algiers, Algeria. It was founded in 1909 and is organized into seven faculties.-History:...
. After he contracted tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
(TB) in 1930, he had to end his football activities (he had been a goalkeeper for the university team) and reduce his studies to part-time. To earn money, he also took odd jobs: as private tutor, car parts clerk and assistant at the Meteorological Institute. He completed his licence de philosophie (BA) in 1935; in May 1936, he successfully presented his thesis on Plotinus
Plotinus
Plotinus was a major philosopher of the ancient world. In his system of theory there are the three principles: the One, the Intellect, and the Soul. His teacher was Ammonius Saccas and he is of the Platonic tradition...
, Néo-Platonisme et Pensée Chrétienne (Neo-Platonism and Christian Thought), for his diplôme d'études supérieures (roughly equivalent to an M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
thesis).
Camus joined the French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
in the spring of 1935, seeing it as a way to "fight inequalities between Europeans and 'natives' in Algeria." He did not suggest he was a Marxist or that he had read Das Kapital, but did write that "[w]e might see communism as a springboard and asceticism that prepares the ground for more spiritual activities." In 1936, the independence-minded Algerian Communist Party
Algerian Communist Party
The Algerian Communist Party was a communist party in Algeria. The PCA emerged in 1920 as an extension the French Communist Party and eventually became a separate entity in 1936 ....
(PCA) was founded. Camus joined the activities of the Algerian People's Party
Algerian People's Party
The Algerian People's Party , was a successor organization of the North African Star , led by veteran Algerian nationalist Messali Hadj. It was formed on March 11, 1937...
(Le Parti du Peuple Algérien), which got him into trouble with his Communist party comrades. As a result, in 1937 he was denounced as a Trotskyite
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
and expelled from the party. Camus went on to be associated with the French anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
movement.
The anarchist André Prudhommeaux
Andre Prudhommeaux
André Prudhommeaux was a French anarchist bookstore owner whose shop in Paris specialized in social history and was a place for many debates and discussions. French agronomist, libertarian, editor , writer and publicist.Prudhommeaux was an early Council Communist, then an anarchist...
first introduced him at a meeting in 1948 of the Cercle des Étudiants Anarchistes (Anarchist Student Circle) as a sympathiser familiar with anarchist thought. Camus wrote for anarchist publications such as Le Libertaire, La révolution Proletarienne and Solidaridad Obrera
Solidaridad Obrera (periodical)
Solidaridad Obrera is a newspaper, published by the Catalonian/Balearic regional section of the anarchist labor union Confederación Nacional del Trabajo , and mouthpiece of the CNT in Spain....
(Workers' Solidarity, the organ of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions affiliated with the International Workers Association . When working with the latter group it is also known as CNT-AIT...
(National Confederation of Labor)). Camus stood with the anarchists when they expressed support for the uprising of 1953 in East Germany
Uprising of 1953 in East Germany
The Uprising of 1953 in East Germany started with a strike by East Berlin construction workers on June 16. It turned into a widespread anti-Stalinist uprising against the German Democratic Republic government the next day....
. He again allied with the anarchists in 1956, first in support of the workers’ uprising in Poznań
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
, Poland, and then later in the year with the Hungarian Revolution.
In 1934, he married Simone Hie, a morphine
Morphine
Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...
addict, but the marriage ended as a consequence of infidelities on both sides. In 1935, he founded Théâtre du Travail (Worker's Theatre), renamed Théâtre de l'Equipe (Team's Theatre) in 1937. It lasted until 1939. From 1937 to 1939 he wrote for a socialist paper, Alger-Républicain. His work included an account of the peasants who lived in Kabylie
Kabylie
Kabylie or Kabylia , is a region in the north of Algeria.It is part of the Tell Atlas and is located at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. Kabylia covers several provinces of Algeria: the whole of Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia , most of Bouira and parts of the wilayas of Bordj Bou Arreridj, Jijel,...
in poor conditions, which apparently cost him his job. From 1939 to 1940, he briefly wrote for a similar paper, Soir-Republicain. He was rejected by the French army because of his TB.
In 1940, Camus married Francine Faure
Francine Faure
Francine Faure, a noted mathematician, is perhaps best known as the second wife of Albert Camus.-Personal life:Although Camus was indifferent to formal marriage, the couple had twins, Catherine and Jean Camus, in 1944....
, a pianist and mathematician. Although he loved her, he had argued passionately against the institution of marriage, dismissing it as unnatural. Even after Francine gave birth to twins, Catherine and Jean, on 5 September 1945, he continued to joke to friends that he was not cut out for marriage. Camus conducted numerous affairs, particularly an irregular and eventually public affair with the Spanish-born actress Maria Casares
María Casares
María Casares was a Spanish actress and one of the most distinguished stars of the French stage. She was usually credited in France as Maria Casarès.-Early life:...
. In the same year, Camus began to work for Paris-Soir
Paris-Soir
Paris-Soir was a large-circulation daily newspaper in Paris, France from 1923-1944.Its first issue came out in 4 October 1923. After June 11, 1940, the same publisher, Jean Prouvost, continued its publication in Vichy France: Clermont-Ferrand, Lyon, Marseille, and Vichy while in occupied Paris, it...
magazine. In the first stage of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the so-called Phoney War, Camus was a pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
. In Paris during the Wehrmacht occupation, on 15 December 1941, Camus witnessed the execution of Gabriel Péri
Gabriel Péri
Gabriel Péri was a prominent French Communist journalist and politician, and member of the French Resistance. He was executed by Nazi-occupied France during World War II.-Early life:Péri was born in Toulon to a Corsican family...
; it crystallized his revolt against the Germans. He moved to Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
with the rest of the staff of Paris-Soir. In the same year he finished his first books, The Stranger
The Stranger (novel)
The Stranger or The Outsider is a novel by Albert Camus published in 1942. Its theme and outlook are often cited as examples of existentialism, though Camus did not consider himself an existentialist; in fact, its content explores various philosophical schools of thought, including absurdism, as...
and The Myth of Sisyphus
The Myth of Sisyphus
The Myth of Sisyphus is a philosophical essay by Albert Camus. It comprises about 120 pages and was published originally in 1942 in French as Le Mythe de Sisyphe; the English translation by Justin O'Brien followed in 1955....
. He returned briefly to Oran
Oran
Oran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country.It is the capital of the Oran Province . The city has a population of 759,645 , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000, making it the second largest...
, Algeria in 1942.
Literary career
During the war Camus joined the French ResistanceFrench Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
cell Combat
Combat (newspaper)
Combat was a French newspaper created during the Second World War. Originally a clandestine newspaper of the Resistance, it was headed by Albert Ollivier, Jean Bloch-Michel, Georges Altschuler and, most of all, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, André Malraux, Emmanuel Mounier, and then Raymond Aron...
, which published an underground newspaper of the same name. This group worked against the Nazis, and in it Camus assumed the nom de guerre
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Beauchard. Camus became the paper's editor in 1943 and was in Paris when the Allies liberated the city, where he reported on the last of the fighting. Soon after the event on 6 August 1945, he was one of the few French editors to publicly express opposition to the United States' dropping the atomic bomb in Hiroshima
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
. He resigned from Combat in 1947 when it became a commercial paper. It was then that he became acquainted with Jean-Paul Sartre.
After the war, Camus began frequenting the Café de Flore
Café de Flore
The Café de Flore, at the corner of the Boulevard Saint-Germain and the Rue St. Benoit, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, has long been celebrated for its intellectual clientele....
on the Boulevard Saint-Germain
Boulevard Saint-Germain
The Boulevard Saint-Germain is a major street in Paris on the Left Bank of the Seine river. It curves in a 3.5 kilometer arc from the Pont de Sully in the east to the Pont de la Concorde in the west and traverses the 5th, 6th and 7th arrondissements...
in Paris with Sartre and others. He also toured the United States to lecture about French thought. Although he leaned left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
, politically, his strong criticisms of Communist doctrine did not win him any friends in the Communist parties
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
and eventually alienated Sartre.
In 1949 his TB returned and Camus lived in seclusion for two years. In 1951 he published The Rebel, a philosophical analysis of rebellion and revolution which expressed his rejection of communism. Upsetting many of his colleagues and contemporaries in France, the book brought about the final split with Sartre. The dour reception depressed him and he began to translate plays.
Camus's first significant contribution to philosophy was his idea of the absurd. He saw it as the result of our desire for clarity and meaning within a world and condition that offers neither, which he expressed in The Myth of Sisyphus
The Myth of Sisyphus
The Myth of Sisyphus is a philosophical essay by Albert Camus. It comprises about 120 pages and was published originally in 1942 in French as Le Mythe de Sisyphe; the English translation by Justin O'Brien followed in 1955....
and incorporated into many of his other works, such as The Stranger
The Stranger (novel)
The Stranger or The Outsider is a novel by Albert Camus published in 1942. Its theme and outlook are often cited as examples of existentialism, though Camus did not consider himself an existentialist; in fact, its content explores various philosophical schools of thought, including absurdism, as...
and The Plague
The Plague
The Plague is a novel by Albert Camus, published in 1947, that tells the story of medical workers finding solidarity in their labour as the Algerian city of Oran is swept by a plague. It asks a number of questions relating to the nature of destiny and the human condition...
. Despite his split from his "study partner", Sartre, some still argue that Camus falls into the existentialist camp. He specifically rejected that label in his essay "Enigma" and elsewhere (see: The Lyrical and Critical Essays of Albert Camus). The current confusion arises in part because many recent applications of existentialism have much in common with many of Camus's practical ideas (see: Resistance, Rebellion, and Death). But, his personal understanding of the world (e.g. "a benign indifference", in The Stranger
The Stranger (novel)
The Stranger or The Outsider is a novel by Albert Camus published in 1942. Its theme and outlook are often cited as examples of existentialism, though Camus did not consider himself an existentialist; in fact, its content explores various philosophical schools of thought, including absurdism, as...
), and every vision he had for its progress (e.g. vanquishing the "adolescent furies" of history and society, in The Rebel) undoubtedly set him apart.
In the 1950s Camus devoted his efforts to human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
. In 1952 he resigned from his work for UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
when the UN accepted Spain as a member under the leadership of General Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
. In 1953 he criticized Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
methods to crush a workers' strike in East Berlin
East Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
. In 1956 he protested against similar methods in Poland (protests in Poznań
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
) and the Soviet repression of the Hungarian revolution in October.
Camus maintained his pacifism and resisted capital punishment anywhere in the world. He wrote an essay against capital punishment in collaboration with Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler CBE was a Hungarian author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria...
, the writer, intellectual and founder of the League Against Capital Punishment.
When the Algerian War began in 1954, Camus was confronted with a moral dilemma. He identified with the pied-noir
Pied-noir
Pied-Noir , plural Pieds-Noirs, pronounced , is a term referring to French citizens of various origins who lived in French Algeria before independence....
s such as his own parents and defended the French government's actions against the revolt. He argued that 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 favouring greater Algerian autonomy
Self-governance
Self-governance is an abstract concept that refers to several scales of organization.It may refer to personal conduct or family units but more commonly refers to larger scale activities, i.e., professions, industry bodies, religions and political units , up to and including autonomous regions and...
or even federation, though not full-scale independence, he believed that the pied-noirs and Arabs could co-exist. During the war he advocated a civil truce that would spare the civilians, which was rejected by both sides, who regarded it as foolish. Behind the scenes, he began to work for imprisoned Algerians who faced the death penalty.
From 1955 to 1956, Camus wrote for L'Express
L'Express (France)
L'Express is a French weekly news magazine. When founded in 1953 during the First Indochina War, it was modelled on the US magazine TIME.-History:...
. In 1957 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
"for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times", not for his novel The Fall, published the previous year, but for his writings against capital punishment in the essay "Réflexions sur la Guillotine
Reflections on the Guillotine
"Reflections on the Guillotine" is an extended essay written in 1957 by Albert Camus. In the essay Camus takes an uncompromising position for the abolition of the death penalty. Camus's view is similar to that of De Sade who also argued that murder premeditated and carried out by the state was the...
" (Reflections on the Guillotine). When he spoke to students at the University of Stockholm, he defended his apparent inactivity in the Algerian question; he stated that he was worried about what might happen to his mother, who still lived in Algeria. This led to further ostracism by French left-wing intellectuals.
Revolutionary Union Movement and Europe
As he wrote in L'Homme révolté (in the chapter about "The Thought on Midday", Camus was a follower of the ancient Greek 'Solar Tradition' (la pensée solaire). In 1947–48 he founded the Revolutionary Union Movement (Groupes de liaison internationale – GLI) a trade union movement in the context of revolutionary syndicalism (Syndicalisme révolutionnaire). According to Olivier Todd, in his biography, 'Albert Camus, une vie', it was a group opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton. For more, see the book Alfred Rosmer et le mouvement révolutionnaire internationale by Christian Gras).His colleagues were Nicolas Lazarévitch, Louis Mercier, Roger Lapeyre, Paul Chauvet, Auguste Largentier, Jean de Boë (see the article: "Nicolas Lazarévitch, Itinéraire d'un syndicaliste révolutionnaire" by Sylvain Boulouque in the review Communisme, n° 61, 2000). His main aim was to express the positive side of surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
and existentialism, rejecting the negativity and the nihilism
Nihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
of André Breton.
From 1943, Albert Camus had correspondence with Altiero Spinelli
Altiero Spinelli
Altiero Spinelli was an Italian political theorist and a European federalist. Spinelli is referred to as one of the "Founding Fathers of the European Union" due to his co-authorship of the Ventotene Manifesto, his founding role in the European federalist movement, his strong influence on the first...
who founded the European Federalist Movement in Milan—see Ventotene Manifesto
Ventotene Manifesto
The Ventotene Manifesto is a political statement written by Altiero Spinelli and by Ernesto Rossi while they were prisoners on the Italian island of Ventotene during World War II. Completed in June 1941, the Manifesto was circulated within the Italian Resistance, and it soon became the programme...
and the book "Unire l'Europa, superare gli stati", Altiero Spinelli nel Partito d'Azione del Nord Italia e in Francia dal 1944 al 1945-annexed a letter by Altiero Spinelli to Albert Camus.
In 1944 Camus founded the "French Committee for the European Federation" (Comité Français pour la Féderation Européene – CFFE) declaring that Europe "can only evolve along the path of economic progress, democracy and peace if the nation states become a federation."
From 22–25 March 1945, the first conference of the European Federalist Movement was organised in Paris with the participation of Albert Camus, George Orwell, Emmanuel Mounier
Emmanuel Mounier
Emmanuel Mounier was a French philosopher.Mounier was the guiding spirit in the French Personalist movement, and founder and director of Esprit, the magazine which was the organ of the movement. Mounier, who was the child of peasants, was a brilliant scholar at the Sorbonne...
, Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford was an American historian, philosopher of technology, and influential literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a writer...
, André Philip
André Philip
André Philip was an SFIO who served as an Interior Minister for the Free French during the war. He also served as a finance minister in 1946 and part of 1947....
, Daniel Mayer
Daniel Mayer
Daniel William Mayer was a member of the French Section of the Workers' International , a socialist party in France, president of the Ligue des droits de l'homme from 1958 to 1975. He founded the Comité d'Action Socialiste in 1941 and was a member of the Brutus Network, a Resistant Socialist group...
, François Bondy
François Bondy
François Bondy was a Swiss journalist and novelist.He worked for Swiss and German newspapers and was reputed for his political commentaries...
and Altiero Spinelli (see the book The Biography of Europe by Pan Drakopoulos). This specific branch of the European Federalist Movement disintegrated in 1957 after Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
's ideas about the European integration rose to dominance.
Death
Camus died on 4 January 1960 at the age of 46 in a car accident near SensSens
Sens is a commune in the Yonne department in Burgundy in north-central France.Sens is a sub-prefecture of the department. It is crossed by the Yonne and the Vanne, which empties into the Yonne here.-History:...
, in Le Grand Fossard in the small town of Villeblevin
Villeblevin
Villeblevin is a commune in the Yonne department in Burgundy in north-central France.The town achieved prominence in 1960 when it was the site of the car crash that killed Albert Camus....
. In his coat pocket lay an unused train ticket. He had planned to travel by train with his wife and children, but at the last minute he accepted his publisher's proposal to travel with him.
Facel Vega
Facel was a French manufacturer of automobiles from 1954 to 1964.The company was named after the original metal stamping company FACEL, and the company's first model, the Vega, named after the star, was introduced at the 1954 Paris Auto Show...
car, Michel Gallimard, his publisher and close friend, also died in the accident. In August 2011, the Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera
Corriere della Sera
The Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper, published in Milan.It is among the oldest and most reputable Italian newspapers. Its main rivals are Rome's La Repubblica and Turin's La Stampa.- History :...
reported a theory that the writer had been the victim of a Soviet plot, but Camus biographer Olivier Todd did not consider it credible. Camus was buried in the Lourmarin Cemetery, Lourmarin
Lourmarin
Lourmarin is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. Its inhabitants are called Lourmarinois.-Geography:...
, Vaucluse, France.
He was survived by his wife and twin children, Catherine and Jean, who hold the copyrights to his work.
Two of Camus's works were published posthumously. The first, entitled A Happy Death
A Happy Death
A Happy Death was the first novel by French writer-philosopher Albert Camus. The existentialist topic of the book is the "will to happiness," the conscious creation of one's happiness, and the need of time to do so...
(1970), featured a character named Patrice Mersault, comparable to The Stranger
The Stranger (novel)
The Stranger or The Outsider is a novel by Albert Camus published in 1942. Its theme and outlook are often cited as examples of existentialism, though Camus did not consider himself an existentialist; in fact, its content explores various philosophical schools of thought, including absurdism, as...
The First Man
The First Man is Albert Camus' unfinished final novel.On January 4, 1960, at the age of forty-six, Camus was killed in a car accident outside Paris. The incomplete manuscript of The First Man, the autobiographical novel Camus was working on at the time of his death, was found in the mud at the...
(1995), which Camus was writing before he died. The novel was an autobiographical work about his childhood in Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
.
Summary of absurdism
Many writers have addressed the Absurd, each with his or her own interpretation of what the Absurd is and what comprises its importance. For example, Sartre recognizes the absurdity of individual experience, while Kierkegaard explains that the absurdity of certain religious truths prevent us from reaching God rationally. Camus regretted the continued reference to himself as a "philosopher of the absurd". He showed less interest in the Absurd shortly after publishing Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus). To distinguish his ideas, scholars sometimes refer to the Paradox of the Absurd, when referring to "Camus' Absurd".His early thoughts appeared in his first collection of essays, L'Envers et l'endroit (The Two Sides Of The Coin) 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. In 1942 he published the story of a man living an absurd life as L'Étranger (The Stranger)
The Stranger (novel)
The Stranger or The Outsider is a novel by Albert Camus published in 1942. Its theme and outlook are often cited as examples of existentialism, though Camus did not consider himself an existentialist; in fact, its content explores various philosophical schools of thought, including absurdism, as...
. In the same year he released Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus)
The Myth of Sisyphus
The Myth of Sisyphus is a philosophical essay by Albert Camus. It comprises about 120 pages and was published originally in 1942 in French as Le Mythe de Sisyphe; the English translation by Justin O'Brien followed in 1955....
, a literary essay on the Absurd. He also wrote a play about Caligula
Caligula
Caligula , also known as Gaius, was Roman Emperor from 37 AD to 41 AD. Caligula was a member of the house of rulers conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Caligula's father Germanicus, the nephew and adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, was a very successful general and one of Rome's most...
, a Roman Emperor, pursuing an absurd logic. The play was not performed until 1945.
The turning point in Camus' 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 Libération in 1944, and the third in the newspaper Libertés, in 1945. The four letters were published as Lettres à un ami allemand (Letters to a German Friend) in 1945, and were included in the collection Resistance, Rebellion, and Death
Resistance, Rebellion, and Death
Resistance, Rebellion, and Death is a 1960 collection of essays written by Albert Camus and selected by the author prior to his death. The essays here generally involve conflicts near the Mediterranean, with an emphasis on his home country Algeria, and on the Algerian War of Independence in...
.
Ideas on the Absurd
In his essays Camus presented the reader with dualisms: happiness and sadness, dark and light, life and death, etc. His aim was to emphasize the fact that happiness is fleeting and that the human condition is one of mortality. He did this not to be morbid, but to reflect a greater appreciation for life and happiness. In Le Mythe, this dualism becomes a paradox: We value our lives and existence so greatly, but at the same time we know we will eventually die, and ultimately our endeavours are meaningless. While we can live with a dualism (I can accept periods of unhappiness, because I know I will also experience happiness to come), we cannot live with the paradox (I think my life is of great importance, but I also think it is meaningless). In Le Mythe, Camus was interested in how we experience the Absurd and how we live with it. Our life must have meaning for us to value it. If we accept that life has no meaning and therefore no value, should we kill ourselves?In Le Mythe, Camus suggests that 'creation of meaning', would entail a logical leap or a kind of philosophical suicide in order to find psychological comfort. But Camus wants to know if he can live with what logic and lucidity has uncovered – if one can build a foundation on what one knows and nothing more. Creation of meaning is not a viable alternative but a logical leap and an evasion of the problem. He gives examples of how others would seem to make this kind of leap. The alternative option, namely suicide, would entail another kind of leap, where one attempts to kill absurdity by destroying one of its terms (the human being). Camus points out, however, that there is no more meaning in death than there is in life, and that it simply evades the problem yet again. Camus concludes, that we must instead 'entertain' both death and the absurd, while never agreeing to their terms.
Meursault, the absurdist hero of L'Étranger, has killed a man and is scheduled to be executed. Caligula ends up admitting his absurd logic was wrong and is killed by an assassination he has deliberately brought about. However, while Camus possibly suggests that Caligula's absurd reasoning is wrong, the play's anti-hero does get the last word, as the author similarly exalts Meursault's final moments.
Camus made a significant contribution to a viewpoint of the Absurd, and always rejected nihilism as a valid response.
"If nothing had any meaning, you would be right. But there is something that still has a meaning." Second Letter to a German Friend, December 1943.
Camus' understanding of the Absurd promotes public debate; his various offerings entice us to think about the Absurd and offer our own contribution. Concepts such as cooperation, joint effort and solidarity are of key importance to Camus, though they are most likely sources of 'relative' versus 'absolute' meaning.
Religious beliefs and absurdism
While writing his thesis on PlotinusPlotinus
Plotinus was a major philosopher of the ancient world. In his system of theory there are the three principles: the One, the Intellect, and the Soul. His teacher was Ammonius Saccas and he is of the Platonic tradition...
and Saint Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
, Camus became very strongly influenced by their works, especially that of St. Augustine. In his work, Confessions (consisting of 13 books), Augustine promotes the idea of a connection between God and the rest of the world. Camus identified with the idea that a personal experience could become a reference point for his philosophical and literary writings. Although he considered himself an atheist, Camus later came to tout the idea that the absence of religious belief can simultaneously be accompanied by a longing for "salvation and meaning". This line of thinking presented an ostensible paradox and became a major thread in defining the idea of absurdism in Camus' writings.
Opposition to totalitarianism
Throughout his life, Camus spoke out against and actively opposed totalitarianismTotalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
in its many forms. Early on, Camus was active within the French Resistance to the German occupation of France during World War II, even directing the famous Resistance journal, Combat. On the French collaboration with Nazi 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 liberation, Camus remarked, "This country does not need a Talleyrand, but a Saint-Just." The reality of the bloody postwar tribunals soon changed his mind: Camus publicly reversed himself and became a lifelong opponent of capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
.
Camus' well-known falling out with Sartre is linked to this opposition to totalitarianism. Camus detected a reflexive totalitarianism in the mass politics
Mass politics
Mass politics is a political order resting on the emergence of mass political parties.The emergence of mass politics generally associated with the rise of mass society coinciding with the Industrial Revolution in the West around the time of President Andrew Jackson...
espoused by Sartre in the name of radical Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
. This was apparent in his work L'Homme Révolté (The Rebel) which not only was an assault on the Soviet police state, but also questioned the very nature of mass revolutionary politics. Camus continued to speak out against the atrocities of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, a sentiment captured in his 1957 speech, The Blood of the Hungarians, commemorating the anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution
1956 Hungarian Revolution
The Hungarian Revolution or Uprising of 1956 was a spontaneous nationwide revolt against the government of the People's Republic of Hungary and its Soviet-imposed policies, lasting from 23 October until 10 November 1956....
, an uprising crushed in a bloody assault by the Red Army.
Football
Camus was once asked by his friend Charles Poncet which he preferred, football or the theatre. Camus is said to have replied, "Football, without hesitation."Camus played as goalkeeper for Racing Universitaire d'Alger
Racing Universitaire d'Alger
Racing Universitaire d'Alger is a former multi sports club formed in 1927 in Algiers, Algeria.-The Algiers invitational tournament:In 1936 R.U.A. were the home side in a four team invitational tournament...
(RUA won both the North African Champions Cup
North African Champions Cup
The North African Champions Cup was a football competition involving the then French territories of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.It was played between the champions of the Tunisian and Moroccan leagues and the 3 Algerian regional leagues. Morocco did not enter their champions until the 1928/29 season...
and the North African Cup
North African Cup
The North African Cup was a football competition involving the then French territories of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia from 1930 to 1956. The tournament was contested between the clubs of five leagues, with Morocco and Tunisia contributing one league each, and Algeria contributing leagues from the...
twice each in the 1930s) junior team from 1928–30. The sense of team spirit, fraternity, and common purpose appealed to Camus enormously. In match reports Camus would often attract positive comment for playing with passion and courage. Any aspirations in football disappeared at age 17, upon contracting tuberculosis—then incurable, Camus was bedridden for long and painful periods.
When Camus was asked in the 1950s by an alumni sports magazine for a few words regarding his time with the RUA, his response included the following:
After many years during which I saw many things, what I know most surely about morality and the duty of man I owe to sport and learned it in the RUA.
Camus was referring to a sort of simplistic morality he wrote about in his early essays, the principle of sticking up for your friends, of valuing bravery and fair-play. Camus' belief was that political and religious authorities try to confuse us with over-complicated moral systems to make things appear more complex than they really are, potentially to serve their own needs.
Novels
- The StrangerThe Stranger (novel)The Stranger or The Outsider is a novel by Albert Camus published in 1942. Its theme and outlook are often cited as examples of existentialism, though Camus did not consider himself an existentialist; in fact, its content explores various philosophical schools of thought, including absurdism, as...
(L'Étranger, often translated as The Outsider) (1942) - The PlagueThe PlagueThe Plague is a novel by Albert Camus, published in 1947, that tells the story of medical workers finding solidarity in their labour as the Algerian city of Oran is swept by a plague. It asks a number of questions relating to the nature of destiny and the human condition...
(La Peste) (1947) - The Fall (La Chute) (1956)
- A Happy DeathA Happy DeathA Happy Death was the first novel by French writer-philosopher Albert Camus. The existentialist topic of the book is the "will to happiness," the conscious creation of one's happiness, and the need of time to do so...
(La Mort heureuse) (written 1936–1938, published posthumously 1971) - The First ManThe First ManThe First Man is Albert Camus' unfinished final novel.On January 4, 1960, at the age of forty-six, Camus was killed in a car accident outside Paris. The incomplete manuscript of The First Man, the autobiographical novel Camus was working on at the time of his death, was found in the mud at the...
(Le premier homme) (incomplete, published posthumously 1995)
Short stories
- Exile and the KingdomExile and the KingdomExile and the Kingdom is a 1957 collection of six short stories by French-Algerian writer Albert Camus.These works of fiction cover the whole variety of existentialism, or absurdism, as Camus himself insisted his philosophical ideas be called...
(L'exil et le royaume) (collection) (1957)- "The Adulterous WomanThe Adulterous Woman"The Adulterous Woman" is a short story written in 1957. It is the first short story published in the volume Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus.-Characters:...
" ("La Femme adultère") - "The Renegade or a Confused SpiritThe Renegade (Camus short story)"The Renegade" is a short story written in 1957. It is the second short story published in the volume Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus.-Plot summary:...
" ("Le Renégat ou un esprit confus") - "The Silent MenThe Silent Men"The Silent Men" is a short story written in 1957. It is the third short story published in the volume Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus.-The Common Fate:...
" ("Les Muets") - "The GuestThe Guest"The Guest" is a short story by the French writer Albert Camus. It was first published in 1957 as part of a collection entitled Exile and the Kingdom . The French title "L'Hôte" translates into both "the guest" and "the host" which ties back to the relationship between the main characters of the...
" ("L'Hôte") - "Jonas or the Artist at WorkThe Artist at Work"The Artist at Work" is a short story by the French writer Albert Camus from Exile and the Kingdom .- Synopsis :...
" ("Jonas ou l’artiste au travail") - "The Growing StoneThe Growing Stone"The Growing Stone" is a short story by the French writer Albert Camus. It is the final short story in the collection Exile and the Kingdom.-Plot summary:...
" ("La Pierre qui pousse")
- "The Adulterous Woman
Non-fiction books
- Christian Metaphysics and Neoplatonism (1935)
- Betwixt and BetweenBetwixt and BetweenBetwixt and Between is a work of non-fiction by Albert Camus....
(L'envers et l'endroit, also translated as The Wrong Side and the Right Side) (Collection, 1937) - Nuptials (Noces) (1938)
- The Myth of SisyphusThe Myth of SisyphusThe Myth of Sisyphus is a philosophical essay by Albert Camus. It comprises about 120 pages and was published originally in 1942 in French as Le Mythe de Sisyphe; the English translation by Justin O'Brien followed in 1955....
(Le Mythe de Sisyphe) (1942) - The Rebel (L'Homme révolté) (1951)
- Notebooks 1935–1942 (Carnets, mai 1935 — fevrier 1942) (1962)
- Notebooks 1943–1951 (1965)
- Notebooks 1951–1959 (2008) Published as "Carnets Tome III : Mars 1951 – December 1959" (1989)
Plays
- CaligulaCaligula (play)Caligula is a play written by Albert Camus, begun in 1938 and published for the first time in May 1944 by Éditions Gallimard. The play was later the subject of numerous revisions. It was part of what the author called the "Cycle of the Absurd", with the novel The Outsider and the essay The Myth...
(performed 1945, written 1938) - Requiem for a Nun (Requiem pour une nonne, adapted from William FaulknerWilliam FaulknerWilliam Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
's novel by the same nameRequiem for a NunRequiem for a Nun is a book written by William Faulkner in 1951. Like many of Faulkner's works, Requiem experiments with narrative technique—the book is part novel, part play. The protagonist is Temple Drake, a character introduced as a college student in Sanctuary, one of Faulkner's early novels...
) (1956) - The MisunderstandingThe MisunderstandingThe Misunderstanding , sometimes published as Cross Purpose, is a play written in 1943 in occupied Paris by Albert Camus.-Plot summary:...
(Le Malentendu) (1944) - The State of SiegeThe State of SiegeThe State of Siege is the fourth play by Albert Camus.Written in 1948, The State of Siege—the original sense is closer to state of emergency—is a play in three acts presenting the arrival of plague, personified by a young opportunist, in sleepy Cadiz and the subsequent creation of a...
(L' Etat de Siege) (1948) - The Just AssassinsThe Just AssassinsThe Just Assassins is a 1949 play by Algerian writer and philosopher Albert Camus....
(Les Justes) (1949) - The PossessedThe Possessed (play)The Possessed is a play written by Albert Camus in 1959. The piece is a theatrical adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel by the same name....
(Les Possédés, adapted from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel by the same name) (1959)
Essays
- Create Dangerously (Essay on Realism and Artistic Creation) (1957)
- The Ancient Greek Tragedy (Parnassos lecture in Greece) (1956)
- The Crisis of Man (Lecture at Columbia University) (1946)
- Why Spain? (Essay for the theatrical play L' Etat de Siege) (1948)
- Reflections on the GuillotineReflections on the Guillotine"Reflections on the Guillotine" is an extended essay written in 1957 by Albert Camus. In the essay Camus takes an uncompromising position for the abolition of the death penalty. Camus's view is similar to that of De Sade who also argued that murder premeditated and carried out by the state was the...
(Réflexions sur la guillotine) (Extended essay, 1957) - Neither Victims Nor ExecutionersNeither Victims Nor ExecutionersNeither Victims Nor Executioners was a series of essays by Albert Camus that were serialized in Combat, the daily newspaper of the French Resistance, in November 1946. In the essays he discusses violence and murder and the impact these have on those who perpetrate, suffer, or observe...
(Combat) (1946)
Collected essays
- Resistance, Rebellion, and DeathResistance, Rebellion, and DeathResistance, Rebellion, and Death is a 1960 collection of essays written by Albert Camus and selected by the author prior to his death. The essays here generally involve conflicts near the Mediterranean, with an emphasis on his home country Algeria, and on the Algerian War of Independence in...
(1961) – a collection of essays selected by the author. - Lyrical and Critical Essays (1970)
- Youthful Writings (1976)
- Between Hell and Reason: Essays from the Resistance Newspaper "Combat", 1944–1947 (1991)
- Camus at "Combat": Writing 1944–1947 (2005)
Further reading
- Camus (1959), by Germaine Brée ISBN 1-122-01570-4
- Camus (1966), by Adele King ISBN 0-050-01423-4
- Camus: vida e obra (1970), by Vicente de Paulo Barretto.
- Albert Camus: A Biography (1997), by Herbert R. Lottman (ISBN 3-927258-06-7)
- Albert Camus and the Minister (2000), by Howard E. Mumma (ISBN 1-55725-246-7)
- Albert Camus, The Artist in the Arena (1965), by Emmett Parker
- Albert Camus, A Study of His Work (1957), by Philip Malcolm Waller Thody
- Albert Camus: A Life (2000), by Olivier Todd (ISBN 0-7867-0739-9)
- Albert Camus: Kunst und Moral, by Heiner Wittmann (ISBN 3-631-39525-6)
- Sartre and Camus in Aesthetics. The Challenge of Freedom.(2009), by Heiner Wittmann, Ed. by Dirk Hoeges. Dialoghi/Dialogues. Literatur und Kultur Italiens und Frankreichs, vol. 13, Frankfurt/M. ISBN 978-3-631-58693-8
- Ethics and Creativity in the Political thought of Simone Weil and Albert Camus 2004, by Dr. John Randolph LeBlanc (ISBN 978-0-7734-6567-1)
- The MandarinsThe MandarinsThe Mandarins is a 1954 roman-à-clef by Simone de Beauvoir. Beauvoir was awarded the Prix Goncourt prize in 1954 for The Mandarins. It was first published in English in 1957....
by Simone de BeauvoirSimone de BeauvoirSimone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...
(1954) Winner of the 1954 Goncourt Prize; Camus himself states that he is "the hero" of the book in his Notebooks 1951-1959. - Camus, A Romance (2009), by Elizabeth HawesElizabeth Hawes (author)Elizabeth Hawes is an American writer of biography, journalism and creative non-fiction. Her most recent book, Camus, A Romance, is a biography-memoir of the Nobel-Prize winning French-Algerian writer Albert Camus, in which she chronicles his life along with her own experience trying to follow...
(ISBN 978-0802118899)
External links
- Many books of Albert Camus available, in French, in Les Classiques des sciences sociales.
- Albert Camus' Week: Excerpts, articles, interviews and videos on the website of the Prague Writers' Festival
- Nobel Prize in Literature (1957) Link
- "Accidental Friends" the story of the Camus-Sartre friendship and very public breakup
- Interview with daughter Catherine – 3AM
- Another interview with daughter Catherine – Spike
- The Logic of Existential Meaning
- Albert Camus Society UK
- Université McGill: le roman selon les romanciers (French) Inventory and analysis of Albert Camus' non-novelistic writings
- Lesjustes.co.uk : English synopsis of "Les Justes" for students
- Camus 'Bookweb' on literary website The Ledge, with suggestions for further reading.
- Camus Interview with Prof. Jean-Marie Apostolides, from the radio program Entitled OpinionsEntitled OpinionsEntitled Opinions is a literary talk show hosted by Robert P. Harrison, a professor of French and Italian at Stanford University. The show is also available as a podcast. Topics range broadly on issues related to literature, ideas, and lived experience...