3. Camus and the absurd

What is the absurd? ‘Camus and the absurd’ explains that the absurd is a feeling that comes out of experience. For Camus it was a near-death experience: the brutal onset of tuberculosis at the age of 17. The absurd convinced Camus that there is no meaning to life because it could be cut short at any moment. His first three major works, Caligula, The Stranger, and The Myth of Sisyphus, are described. They were about narrating the absurd experiences, and the sometime violent clashes between those awakened to the absurdity of life and those who choose to ignore it.

7. Camus’s legacies

What is it about Camus’s works that inspires so many to quote, discuss, and use them as inspiration for books, films, and songs? ‘Camus’s legacies’ suggests that one possible answer for Camus’s current popularity is that the abstract quality of his thought makes it transferrable. He speaks to an abstract awareness of nature and mortality, but does not tell his readers what to do with this awareness. Nor do his writings subscribe to any particular belief system. Of course, this abstract quality opens the door for attempts to ‘claim’ Camus, but it also leads to plenty of misunderstandings and many different interpretations, across the political spectrum and through the cultural realm.

6. Camus and Algeria

Camus was always ambivalent about colonialism in Algeria and this ambivalence greatly affected him. Camus pushed for more rights to be granted to Algerians after the war, but stopped short of asking for voting rights for all. Camus was to be the advocate for peace and compromise, with one objective in mind: for Algeria to remain French. ‘Camus and Algeria’ considers how the long-repressed colonial reality began slowly to emerge in Camus’s fiction, until it eventually took centre stage. It discusses The Exile and the Kingdom, a collection of short stories that was the last of Camus’s fiction published in his lifetime, and his posthumous novel, The First Man.

5. Camus and Sartre—the breaks that made them inseparable

‘Camus and Sartre—the breaks that made them inseparable’ describes how Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre critically reviewed each other’s work and, despite some unfavourable comments, how they became firm friends when they eventually met in 1943. They mostly socialized and there were no long conversations about one another’s works. The point of divergence between Camus’s absurd and Sartre’s existentialism led to the writers’ first genuine row. The two men had another ongoing disagreement with respect to the question of political violence. In short, however, it was colonialism that was at the centre of the ongoing dispute between the two men.

4. Rebel without a cause

In the midst of the Second World War, Camus realized that he could not be indifferent to the Nazi occupation of France and thus the nihilism of his absurd was untenable. Camus was still firmly against all-explaining theories and systemic change, but he had to find a way to theorize and narrate his decision to join the resistance, which on many levels contradicted some of the central tenets of the absurd. ‘Rebel without a cause’ describes how Camus would drastically change his stance in his second trilogy of works—The Plague, The Just Assassins, and The Rebel—which are part of Camus’s cycle of revolt.

2. Camus, from reporter to editorialist

Camus became a journalist during the tumultuous 1930s. Hitler was in power in Germany. The Spanish Civil War had been raging for two years and would end in 1939 with the victory of the military dictatorship led by Franco. Meanwhile, in France, a new movement, the Popular Front, had taken over. ‘Camus, from reporter to editorialist’ explains how, in this context, Camus continued his own kind of commitment to social justice as a journalist on Pascal Pia’s Alger républicain. Early editorials capture Camus’s ambiguous political position: he wanted justice for all, but within the confines of an unjust colonial society. Camus’s pacifism and his role as a public spokesperson for the resistance are also described.

1. Camus, son of France in Algeria

To grasp fully and appreciate Camus’s achievements and the ambiguity of his works, it is important to consider the historical situation that shaped his formative years. Albert Camus (1913–60) was a French citizen born in Algeria. He would live there from his birth until the middle of the Second World War. ‘Camus, son of France in Algeria’ outlines the structure of Algeria under the rule of the French Republic and the early education of Camus and his two major mentors, Louis Germain and Jean Grenier. It also documents his ill-health, unsuccessful first marriage, his early writing, and introduction to politics through membership of the Communist Party.