Albert Camus

1. Albert Camus The Stranger

2. Albert Camus (1913-1960) • Born in Algeria to a working class colonial family • Father was killed in WWI • Mother: mute, illiterate, supported family by cleaning houses • Was able to study due to scholarships • Joined the Communist party in 1934 (left it two years later) • Established the Theater for the Worker in Algiers • Took part in Resistance in France • Later edited journal Combat • Nobel prize in 1957 • Died in a car accident in 1960

3. Principal works: • The Stranger (1942) • The Myth of Sisyphus (1942) • Caligula (1944) • The Plague (1947) • The Fall (1956) • Exile and the Kingdom (1957)

4. Questions surrounding The Stranger • Is it a novel of ideas, does it contain a thesis, and what has the author set out to prove? • Is it a psychological study of a pathological case, or is this case merely a symbol behind which are hidden larger meanings? • Is it a philosophical novel, and if so, does Camus propose any solutions, or are his theories only negative and destructive? • How are we to read the colonial system inscribed in the text, and the attitude toward Arabs and women it projects?

5. The Absurd • “…in a universe suddenly deprived of illusions and enlightenment, man feels himself a stranger. This exile is without remedy since he is deprived of memories of a lost country or of hope for a promised land” (Myth of Sisyphus) • Man facing the world and realizing the gap between the eternal nature of the universe and his own finite nature and the futility of his efforts • If nothing makes sense, then everything is permitted. All scales of values disappear. All experiences become equivalent and are to be measured quantitatively

6. Where do we see the absurd in The Stranger?

7. Meursault • Lives neither in past nor in the future • Present is nothing but an eternal void • Nothing has meaning, there is no aim • Perfectly passive • Does not perceive causal links • Emphasis on the “loneliness of each moment”: an interminable succession of voids • Believes that the world judges him, though he does not know why • Apathetic, taciturn • Does not feel anything emotionally

8. Alexithymia • “One may be strongly ‘affected’ by an outer or inner event and yet give no more than a second’s attention to what one is feeling… When this occurs, affects may be split within their own particular structure in such a way that the psychic pole is divorced from the somatic pole and the affect is reduced to a purely physiological expression…In this case the emotion cannot be used as a signal to the mind, and its message can be dealt with neither by thought nor by action, leaving the subject open to the danger that the soma may ‘think’ its own solution to the event”

9. What are some examples of Meursault’s purely physical responses/sensitivity and lack of feeling?

10. Other signs of this disorder: • An impoverished fantasy life, a paucity of dreams • In the face of stressful situations, person has no recourse other than to attack any perceptions that risk arousing emotion • What other people expect or request makes no sense • An avoidance of emotional references • The world and people become devitalized, and the exchange with others is meaningless • When the defense breaks down, the body enacts primitive thoughts and feelings on a purely physical level

11. From this perspective, the murder can be seen as: • “a lifetime of unfelt feelings that enact themselves. A longing for intimate contact, a wish to be cared about, a need to be something a father could truly be interested in, combined with an enormous pent up rage, an urge to kill in revenge for having been emotionally murdered himself as a child.”

12. The colonial system • What is Meursault’s attitude toward Arabs? • Toward women? • Ambiguity of the first person narration.

13. Part II • Forum responses: how and why does Meursault change in the second part? • He begins to have emotions • Kristen • Embriette • Katie V. • He makes an effort to understand: Chelsea • He begins to understand: Tiffany • Other ideas?

14. Camus’ concepts of existence and revolt • Existence: makes humans different from things • The power within us to be free • Power to understand • Ability to feel passion • Things: • Can be pushed by forces around them • Are in bondage to their environment • Cannot understand • Are passionless • They are, they do not exist

15. When we give up liberty, lucidity and passionate involvement with the world, we become a mere thing

16. Revolt • The movement from “thinghood” to full existence • Phases: • Rock-like somnolence • A shock or crisis during which the absurdity of the world around us becomes clear and inescapable • Free choice of a reaction or attitude toward this absurdity • The use of our freedom to act (to do something about this absurdidity) • Where do we see these phases in The Stranger?

17. Forum responses • Interpretation of last line • Kalli: in his isolation, an angry mob is the only thing he could hope for • Katie M.: The only thing that matters in life is death • Gena: death as the great equalizer • Lindsey: relationship with existentialist philosophy, no universal justice • Danielle: having others around him, crying with hate would mean that he actually did something

18. “Camus repeatedly affirms that after recognizing the “absurd” and revolting against it, his Meursault is a kind of moral suicide victim – a man not merely condemned to death by his judges, but one actively engaged in carrying out his own death sentence which has been pronounced by the very society to which he is a “stranger”

19. The trial • Novel moves from the absurdity of nature (the symbol of the sun) to an exposition of an absurd social order • The writing out of the actual murder of the Arab (collective racist attitude) • Meursault condemned for parricide and matricide • Things happen without his participation • His lawyer speaks for him in first person • Is he a monster as the prosecutor says?

20. Camus on Meursault: • “I have sometimes said, and always paradoxically, that I tried to give an image, through my character, of the only Christ we deserve. It is clear that I said it without any intention of blasphemy and only with the slight ironic affection that an artist has the right to feel towards the characters he creates”