Albert Camus

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Albert Camus

• (1913-1960)

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Algeria

• French colony 1830-1962
• Annexed to France
• French citizens encouraged to settle there
• European style modernization
• Muslims seen as inferior class
• could be French citizens only if they renounced
  Islam and converted to Christianity
• constituted the majority of the population, but
  not the rulers

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Algeria
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Algeria

• Population 30,480,793
• Algiers - 1,483,000
• Religions Sunni Muslim (state religion) 99
• Ethnic groups
• Arab-Berber 99, European
  less than 1

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French Algeria

• Many French citizens lived there
• Many French citizens owned property
• French profited from agriculture

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Independence movement

• began during the two world wars (1920-1940)
• blocked by conservatives in French parlement
• nationalists calling for armed revolution
• political party National Liberation Front
• attacks on government buildings, military
  installations (terrorism)

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Reprisals by the French

• 400,000 French troops sent to Algeria
• general populace punished
• strengthened the cause of the revolution
• caused a political crisis in France
• General DeGaulle called upon to lead France
• new constitution
• expected to keep Algeria French

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Independence

• extreme right upset with DeGaulle
• formed OAS, militant organization doing
  counter-terrorist attacks
• referendum in 1962 allowing Algerians to choose
  whether they wanted independence or to remain a
  part of France.
• Algerians chose independence.
• Most French citizens (pieds noirs) left.
• much bitterness against French

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Albert Camus (1913-1960)

• Born in Algeria
• He studied philosophy in Algeria
• He moved to France at age 25.
• During the German occupation of France, he was
  active in the Resistance.
• He wrote The Stranger in 1942, The Plague in 1947
  and The Fall in 1956, as well as some plays for
  the theater.

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Camus

• French Algerian (died before independence)
• father was from Alsace, France
• killed in World War I when Camus was 3
• Camus never knew him
• mother was Spanish descent
• moved back with her mother after husbands death
• illiterate, worked as laundress (charwoman)
• poor beginnings, contracted tuberculosis at age
  17
• spoke French, not Arabic or Berber (the native
  languages of Algeria)
• )

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Later Life

• Camus received the Nobel Prize in Literature in
  1957.
• He was killed in an automobile accident in 1960
  with a friend. He was found with a train ticket
  in his pocket. His death was absurd.
• He is known for his philosophy of the absurd,
  explained in his essay The Myth of Sisyphus.

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Sisyphus

• As a punishment from the gods for his trickery,
  Sisyphus was compelled to roll a huge rock up a
  steep hill, but before he could reach the top of
  the hill, the rock would always roll back down
  again, forcing him to begin again. Sisyphus
  overstepped his bounds by considering himself a
  peer of the gods. Zeus bound Sisyphus to an
  eternity of frustration.

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Life of futility
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The Myth of Sisyphus

• The essay Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of
  Sisyphus), 1942, expounds Camus's notion of the
  absurd and of its acceptance with "the total
  absence of hope, which has nothing to do with
  despair, a continual refusal, which must not be
  confused with renouncement - and a conscious
  dissatisfaction".

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For Camus, life is absurd.

• Unreasonable, inexplicable things happen.
• The contradiction must be lived reason and
  its limits must be acknowledged, without false
  hope. However, the absurd can never be accepted
  it requires constant confrontation, constant
  revolt.

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No belief in a higher power

• Abandoning a belief in God, humans gain
  freedom in a very concrete sense no longer bound
  by hope for a better future or eternity, without
  a need to pursue life's purpose or to create
  meaning, "he enjoys a freedom with regard to
  common rules".
• Humans need to band together in solidarity,
  to help each other.

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The revolt

• To embrace the absurd implies embracing the
  unreasonable world. Without a meaning in life,
  there is no scale of values. "What counts is not
  the best living but the most living."
• Thus, Camus arrives at three consequences from
  the full acceptance of the absurd revolt,
  freedom, and passion.

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The Stranger

• first person narrative
• Meursault (mare soh) is French Algerian
• He acts detached from both his own emotions and
  those of others, making him unable to experience
  normal human connections
• feeling of discomfort and confusion in social
  situations and his avoidance of verbal engagement
  where possible

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His mothers funeral
Meursault travels to the nursing home for the
wake. Coffin is nailed shut. Meursault doesnt
want it opened so he can see the body. He has
coffee, smokes cigarettes and falls
asleep. There is a walking procession to the
funeral home. It is miserably hot.
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Meursaults reactions

• He responds to physical sensations more than to
  dialogue. The bright light in the room, the
  physical discomfort of the extreme heat.
• He tunes in and out of conversations.
• He seems completely passive. He asks no
  questions.

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Relationship with Marie

• Meursault's relationship with Marie is
  characterized from the beginning by an absence of
  verbal interaction. Their first meeting consists
  of activities that require little conversation a
  day in the water and an evening at the movies.
  She spends the night at his apartment and leaves
  before Meursault awakes in the morning, thus
  avoiding a parting conversation.

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Marie

• On a subsequent weekend, Marie stays for lunch.
  In the context of their first reported extended
  conversation, Marie asks Meursault if he loves
  her. "I told her that it didn't mean anything but
  that I didn't think so" (35).
• Marie quickly brushes off the negative moment and
  her cheerfulness continues.

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French law

• juge dinstruction (magistrate) responsible for
  conducting the investigative hearing that
  precedes a criminal trial. In this hearing the
  major evidence is gathered and presented, and
  witnesses are heard and depositions taken. If the
  juge d'instruction is not convinced that there is
  sufficient evidence of guilt to warrant a trial
  at the end of the proceedings, no trial will
  occur.

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Court

• The Cour d'Assises ("Assize Court") in France is
  the court charged to judge people accused of
  felonies ("crimes" as known by French law), and
  one of the few to be composed of a popular jury.
  According to French law, a felony is an act for
  which one can be condemned to more than 10 years
  of prison.

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Magistrate

• Is supposed to be impartial
• pulls out crucifix
• never seen a soul as hardened as yours
• Monsieur Antichrist
• expectations

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Defense lawyer

• Meursault says, I made him feel uncomfortable.
• told Meursault to keep quiet about Maman
• not present for the crucifix interrogation

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Prosecutor

• Why had Meursault put Maman in the home?
• Why had he not looked at the body, cried?
• Why did he have coffee and cigarettes?
• Why did he begin an affair with Marie the next
  day?
• Why did he go to a comedy?
• Why was he friends with a seedy character like
  Raymond?