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Albert Camus
(1913 - 1960)
French writer and thinker, Nobel laureate (1957), one of the brightest representatives of existentialist literature. In his artistic and philosophical work, he developed the existential categories of "existence", "absurdity", "rebellion", "freedom", "moral choice", "extreme situation", and also developed the traditions of modernist literature. Depicting a person in a "world without God", Camus consistently considered the positions of "tragic humanism". In addition to fictional prose, the author's creative legacy includes drama, philosophical essays, literary criticism, and publicistic speeches.
He was born on November 7, 1913 in Algeria, the son of a rural worker who died from a serious wound received at the front in the First World War. Camus studied first at a communal school, then at the Algiers Lyceum, and then at the University of Algiers. He was interested in literature and philosophy, and devoted his thesis to philosophy.
In 1935 he created the amateur "Theater of Labor", where he was an actor, director and playwright.
In 1936 he joined the Communist Party, from which he was expelled already in 1937. In the same 37th he published the first collection of essays "The Wrong Side and the Face".
In 1938, the first novel, Happy Death, was written.
In 1940 he moved to Paris, but because of the German advance, he lived and taught for some time in Oran, where he completed the story "The Stranger", which attracted the attention of writers.
In 1941 he wrote the essay "The Myth of Sisyphus", which was considered a programmatic existentialist work, as well as the drama "Caligula".
In 1943 he settled in Paris, where he joined the resistance movement, collaborated with the illegal newspaper Comba, which he headed after the resistance, which threw the occupiers out of the city.
The second half of the 40s - the first half of the 50s - a period of creative development: the novel "Plague" (1947) appeared, which brought the author world fame, the plays "State of Siege" (1948), "The Righteous" (1950), the essay "Rebel man ”(1951), the story“ The Fall ”(1956), the landmark collection“ Exile and the Kingdom ”(1957), the essay“ Timely Reflections ”(1950-1958), etc. The last years of his life were marked by a creative decline.
The work of Albert Camus is an example of the fruitful union of the talents of a writer and a philosopher. For the formation of the artistic consciousness of this creator, acquaintance with the works of F. Nietzsche, A. Schopenhauer, L. Shestov, S. Kierkegaard, as well as with ancient culture and French literature, was of great importance. One of the most important factors in the formation of his existentialist worldview was the early experience of discovering the proximity of death (even in his student years, Camus fell ill with pulmonary tuberculosis). As a thinker, he belongs to the atheistic branch of existentialism.
Pathos, the denial of the values of bourgeois civilization, concentration on the ideas of the absurdity of life and rebellion, characteristic of A. Camus's work, were the reason for his rapprochement with the pro-communist circle of the French intelligentsia, and in particular with the ideologist of "left" existentialism J.P. Sartre. However, already in the post-war years, the writer broke up with his former associates and comrades, because he did not harbor illusions about the “communist paradise” in the former USSR and wanted to reconsider his relationship with “left” existentialism.
While still an aspiring writer, A. Camus drew up a plan for the future creative path, which was supposed to combine three facets of his talent and, accordingly, three areas of his interests - literature, philosophy and theater. There were such stages - "absurd", "rebellion", "love". The writer consistently realized his plan, alas, at the third stage his creative path was cut short by death.
Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913 in Algeria into a fairly simple family. Father, Lucien Camus, was the caretaker of the wine cellar. He died during the war, at that time Albert was not even a year old. Mother, Catherine Santes, was an illiterate woman and after the death of her husband was forced to move to relatives and go into the servant in order to somehow provide for the family.
Childhood and youth
Despite an extremely difficult childhood, Albert grew up open, kind, able to feel and love nature as a child.
He graduated with honors from primary school and continued his studies at the Algerian Lyceum, where he became interested in the works of such authors as M. Proust, F. Nietzsche, A. Malraux. I read with enthusiasm and F.M. Dostoevsky.
During his studies, there is a significant meeting with the philosopher Jean Grenier, who later influenced the formation of Camus as a writer. Thanks to a new acquaintance, Camus discovers religious existentialism and takes an interest in philosophy.
The beginning of the creative path and the famous sayings of Camus
1932 connected with entering the university. At this time, the first publications of notes and essays appeared, in which the influence of Proust, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche was clearly traced. This is how the creative path of one of the most famous writers of the 20th century begins. In 1937, a collection of philosophical reflections was published "The wrong side and the face", in which the lyric hero seeks to hide from the chaos of being and find peace in the wisdom of nature.
1938 to 1944 conditionally considered the first period in the writer's work. Camus works for the underground newspaper Combat, which he himself headed after liberation from the German occupation. At this time the drama comes out Caligula(1944), story "Outsider"(1942). The book ends this period "The myth of Sisyphus".
“All people in the world are the chosen ones. There are no others. Sooner or later, everyone will be condemned and sentenced. "
“I often thought: if I were forced to live in the trunk of a dried-up tree, and absolutely nothing could be done, just watch the sky bloom over my head, I would gradually get used to it.”
The Outsider, 1942 - Albert Camus, quote"Every reasonable person, one way or another, has ever wished death for those whom he loves."
The Outsider, 1942 - Albert Camus, quote"It all starts with consciousness and nothing else matters."
The Myth of Sisyphus, 1944 - Albert Camus, quote
In 1947, Camus's new, largest and perhaps most powerful prose work, the novel "Plague"... One of the events that influenced the course of work on the novel was the Second World War. Camus himself insisted on multiple readings of this book, but still singled out one.
In a letter to Roland Barthes about The Plague, he says that the novel is a symbolic reflection of the struggle of European society against Nazism.
"Anxiety is a slight disgust for the future."
The Plague, 1947 - Albert Camus, quote“In ordinary times, we all, realizing it or not, understand that there is love for which there are no limits, and nevertheless we agree, and even quite calmly, that our love is, in essence, second class. But a person's memory is more demanding. " The Plague, 1947 - Albert Camus, quote
“The evil that exists in the world is almost always the result of ignorance, and any good will can cause just as much damage as evil, if only this good will is not sufficiently enlightened.
"Plague", 1947 - Albert Camus, quote "
The first mentions of the novel appear in Camus's notes in 1941 under the title "Plague or Adventure (Novel)", at the same time he begins to study special literature on the topic.
It should be noted that the first drafts of this manuscript differ significantly from the final version; as the novel was written, its plot and some descriptions changed. Many details were noticed by the author during his stay in Oran.
The next piece to see the light is "Rebel Man"(1951), where Camus explores the origin of human resistance against the inner and surrounding absurdity of existence.
In 1956, a story appears "The fall", and a year later a collection of essays is published "Exile and the Kingdom".
The award has found a hero
In 1957, Albert Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize "for his enormous contribution to literature, highlighting the importance of the human conscience."
In his speech, which would later be called the "Swedish Speech", Camus said that he was "too tightly chained to the gallery of his time not to row with others, even believing that the galley smelled of herring, that there were too many overseers on it, and that, above all, the wrong course has been taken. "
He was buried in a cemetery at Lourmarin in the south of France.
Film based on the book by Olivier Todd "Albert Camus, Life" - VIDEO
Albert Camus, a French writer and philosopher close to existentialism, received a common name during his lifetime "Conscience of the West." Winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his enormous contribution to literature, highlighting the importance of the human conscience."
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French writer, playwright, one of the founders of the "atheistic"
existentialism, Nobel laureate in literature Albert Camus was born in
1913 in French Algeria.
Algiers University, acquaintance with Jean Grenier, philosopher and essayist, - with
his collection of essays "Islands" Camus linked his "rebirth" In student
years Camus joins the Communist Party, and writes thesis on the topic
"Christian Metaphysics and Neoplatonism". In 1937, Camus leaves the Communist Party.
Acquaintance with existentialist thinkers - Kjer-Kegor, Shestov, Heidegger,
Yas-pers - largely determines the circle of Camus's philosophical searches
In the late 1930s, his first collections of prose "The Wrong Side and the Face" and
"The wedding feast". Writes the novel "Happy Death", begins work on the famous
I must say that Camus was very fond of Dostoevsky. Even in one of the theaters he played
the role of Ivan Karamazov in the play "The Brothers Karamazov".
The writer worked as a journalist and traveled a lot in Europe. The outbreak of World War II
the writer met in Paris. Due to poor health - tuberculosis - he was not taken to
army. He continued to work in various newspapers, gave private lessons. He joined
the ranks of the Resistance, becoming a member of the underground group "Komba". During the war years he wrote
Sisyphus. "In 1943 he went to work in the famous publishing house" Gallimard ".
during the Paris uprising in August 1944, he directed the newspaper "Comba"
After the war, he created his most significant philosophical work - "The Rebel
man "and his last novel" The Fall "(1956).
In 1957, Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize - "for the importance of literary
works that confront people with the discerning seriousness of the problems of our
Michel Gallimard, son of a renowned publisher. Found in a travel bag
the draft manuscript of the novel "The First Man", which, after preparation for publication
Camus's daughter Catherine came out in 1994.
Many books have been written about Camus's life. There was a time when he, Sartre and Saint-Exupery
were cult figures in France and throughout Europe. Olivier Todd published
a biography of Camus of almost a thousand pages.
Biographers highlight in Camus's life his inner loneliness.
that he was "a happy lover, football player, amateur actor, very sociable and
a relaxed person. "But he, a native of the Algerian poor, all his life
painfully felt his alienation from other people (the hero of the story "Alien" he,
undoubtedly endowed many of his psychological traits, as well as "the judge on
repentance "from the story" The Fall ").
tuberculosis, which he contracted in his youth. This disease, apparently, exacerbated
the writer's thought Like his social loneliness - the loneliness of a poor man,
soared to the top of fame, the Algerian Frenchman (in the metropolis they were called
"black-footed"). The short moment of unity with the people during the Resistance changed
after the war, a painful alienation in the 1950s, when Camus tried to mediate
in the civil war that broke out in his native Algeria ...
The writer suffered from depression, periodically lost the ability to write, wanted not
leave Europe once and for all, thought of suicide. Biographers note that he
was a great Don Juan (in The Myth of Sisyphus, the writer describes Don Juanism as one
from the life projects of an "absurd person"), but in a strange way, his loved ones
friends and wives were not "French from France" - they were mostly Algerians, but
also a Spanish actress, an Englishwoman, the wife of the writer Arthur Koestler, an American
student, Danish artist, both of his wives suffered from mental
disorders.
Biographers give many examples of the writer's absent-mindedness, which speaks of his
focus on internal problems. When his second wife Francine Faure
gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, he almost forgot them in the hospital: he put
into the car of a young mother, loaded her suitcase and said. "Go!"
At the end of his life, when asked about his worldview. "Are you a leftist intellectual?" - he
answered: "I am not sure that I am an intellectual. As for the rest, I am for the left,
in spite of myself and in spite of themselves ... I believe in justice, but I will defend
first his mother, and then justice. "
Camus has many paradoxes. One is that consistently
defending in publicism the concreteness of morality against bad abstraction
politicians, in his work he cultivated just abstract-symbolic
plots ("Caligula", "Plague", "The Righteous", "State of Siege").
Camus's first major work is "The Myth of Sisyphus", about Sisyphus, forever condemned
by the gods to roll a fragment of a cliff to the top of the mountain, from where it again rolls down.
This myth is a symbol of human life. What are we doing on earth if not
a hopeless job? To realize the meaninglessness of human vanity means
discover the absurdity of the human lot. Where is the exit? Suicide? Hope
outlive \ yourself thanks to your creations? Why should a writer write if all
does it all end in death? For the glory? She is doubtful, and even if she
Earth .. No, everything is absurd.
The famous French writer, critic and memoirist André Mauroi writes about the "Myth of
Sisyphus "" "What does Camus offer us? Child of the sun, he does not accept despair.
Doesn't the future exist? Let it be so, enjoy the present. Become an athlete or
a poet or both at the same time. The ideal of the absurd man is rapture
momentary. Sisyphus is aware of his burdensome lot, and in this clarity of consciousness -
the guarantee of his victory. Here Camus converges with Pascal. The greatness of man is in the knowledge that
he is mortal. The greatness of Sisyphus lies in the knowledge that the stone will inevitably roll down. And this
knowledge turns fate into the work of human hands, which must be settled
between people".
This book was published in 1942. All around the war. The world certainly looks
supremely absurd. And then Camus: "Yes, the world is absurd, yes - from the gods
you don't have to wait for anything. And yet, it is necessary, looking into the face of inexorable fate,
to realize it, to despise it, and to the extent that it is in our human powers,
André Maurois believes that Camus "from the first steps penetrated into the very heart of modern
the world. "
in relation to the existence of the collective, the same role as the "outsider" in
relation to the existence of the individual. Just as Meursault discovers
the beauty of life thanks to the shock that awakens in him a protest, the whole city - Oran -
awakens to consciousness when it finds itself in isolation, at the mercy of a plague plague.
Camus in his works puts a sense of proportion above all else.
"Our torn Europe needs not intolerance, but work and
mutual understanding. "" True generosity towards the future consists in
to give everything to the present. "
Here, today, immediately, that's where to work. It will be hard. WITH
injustice will never end, but a person will always rebel
against all This the devil tells us to be like gods. To become human
today, one must refuse to be a god. It is these thoughts that are noted in creativity
Camus Maurois. "Camus does not repeat Voltaire's words:" You need to cultivate your garden. "
rather, he offers, in my opinion, to help the humiliated to cultivate their garden. "
As for art, Camus shared Nietzsche's opinion that “art is necessary
in order not to die of the truth. "And he added from himself:" Art is
in a sense, a rebellion against the incompleteness and frailty of the world: it consists in
to transform reality, while preserving it, because in it the source
his emotional stress ... Art is not a complete rejection or complete
acceptance of existence. It consists of rebellion and agreement at the same time ... "
Some believe that Camus is more a philosopher, thinker than a writer. He himself
said: "You can think only in images. If you want to be a philosopher, write
Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913 in Algeria, the son of an agricultural worker. He was not even a year old when his father died on First World War... After the death of his father, Albert's mother suffered a stroke and became half-mute. Childhood Camus was very difficult.
In 1923 Albert entered the Lyceum. He was a capable student and was actively involved in sports. However, after the young man fell ill with tuberculosis, he had to leave the sport.
After the lyceum, the future writer entered the philosophy department of the University of Algiers. Camus had to work hard to be able to pay tuition fees. In 1934, Albert Camus married Simone Iye. The wife turned out to be a morphine addict, and the marriage with her did not last long.
In 1936, the future writer received a master's degree in philosophy. Just after receiving his diploma, Camus experienced an exacerbation of tuberculosis. Because of this, he did not stay in graduate school.
To improve his health, Camus went on a trip to France. He presented his impressions of the trip in his first book, The Wrong Side and the Face (1937). In 1936, the writer began work on his first novel, Happy Death. This work was only published in 1971.
Camus very quickly acquired a reputation as a great writer and intellectual. He not only wrote, but also was an actor, playwright, director. In 1938 his second book was published - "Marriage". At this time, Camus was already living in France.
During the German occupation of France, the writer took an active part in the Resistance movement, he also worked for the underground newspaper "Battle", which was published in Paris. In 1940, the story "The Stranger" was completed. This poignant work brought the writer worldwide fame. This was followed by the philosophical essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" (1942). In 1945 the play "Caligula" was published. In 1947, the novel The Plague appeared.
Philosophy of Albert Camus
Camus was one of the most prominent representatives existentialism... In his books, the idea of the absurdity of human existence is carried out, which in any case will end in death. In early works (Caligula, The Outsider), the absurdity of life leads Camus to despair and amoralism, reminiscent of Nietzscheism. But in "The Plague" and subsequent books, the writer insists: a common tragic fate should generate in people a feeling of mutual compassion and solidarity. The goal of the individual is “to create meaning in the midst of universal nonsense”, “to overcome the human destiny, drawing within himself the strength that he had previously sought outside.”
In the 1940s. Camus became close friends with another prominent existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre. However, due to serious ideological differences, the moderate humanist Camus broke with the communist radical Sartre. In 1951, Camus's major philosophical work "The Rebellious Man" was published, and in 1956 - the story "The Fall".
In 1957, Albert Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize "for his enormous contribution to literature, highlighting the importance of the human conscience."
Shortly thereafter, his mother, née Catherine Sintes, an illiterate woman of Spanish descent, suffered a stroke that left her half-mute. K.'s family moved to Algeria to live with their disabled grandmother and uncle, and in order to feed the family, Katrin was forced to go to work as a servant. Despite an unusually difficult childhood, Albert did not withdraw into himself; he admired the amazing beauty of the North African coast, which did not fit in with the boy's life, which was full of hardships. Childhood impressions left a deep imprint on the soul of K. - a person and an artist.
K. was greatly influenced by his school teacher Louis Germain, who, recognizing the abilities of his student, gave him every support. With the help of Germain, Albert managed to enter the Lyceum in 1923, where the young man's interest in learning was combined with a passion for sports, especially boxing. However, in 1930 K. fell ill with tuberculosis, which forever deprived him of the opportunity to go in for sports. Despite the illness, the future writer had to change many professions in order to pay tuition at the Philosophy Faculty of the University of Algiers. In 1934, Mr .. K. married Simone Iye, who turned out to be a morphine addict. Together they lived for no more than a year, and in 1939 they officially divorced.
After completing work on Blessed Augustine and the Greek philosopher Plotinus, K. in 1936 received a master's degree in philosophy, but the academic career of the young scientist was hampered by another outbreak of tuberculosis, and K. did not remain in graduate school.
Leaving the university, K. for medicinal purposes takes a trip to the French Alps and for the first time finds himself in Europe. Impressions from a trip to Italy, Spain, Czechoslovakia and France were the first published book of the writer "The Inside Out and the Face" ("L" Envers et 1 "endroit", 1937), a collection of essays, which also included memories of his mother, grandmother, uncle. In 1936, Mr .. K. begins work on his first novel "Happy Death" ("La Mort heureuse"), which was released only in 1971.
Meanwhile, in Algeria, K. was already considered a leading writer and intellectual. Theatrical activity (K. was an actor, playwright, director), he combined during these years with work in the newspaper "Republican Algeria" ("Alger Republicain") as a political reporter, book reviewer and editor. A year after the publication of the second book of the writer "Marriage" ("Noces", 1938) K. moved to France forever.
During the German occupation of France, K. took an active part in the resistance movement, collaborated in the underground newspaper "Battle" ("Le Comat"), published in Paris. Along with this activity, fraught with serious danger, K. is working on the completion of the story "The Stranger" ("L" Etranger ", 1942), which he began in Algeria and which brought him international fame. The story is an analysis of alienation, meaninglessness of human existence. story - a certain Meursault, who was destined to become a symbol of an existential antihero, refuses to adhere to the conventions of bourgeois morality. The dry, detached style of storytelling (which, according to some critics, makes K. similar to Hemingway) further emphasizes the horror of what is happening.
The "Outsider", which had a huge success, was followed by the philosophical essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" ("Le Mythe de Sisyphe", 1942), where the author compares the absurdity of human existence with the labor of the mythical Sisyphus, doomed to constantly fight against forces with which he cannot cope. Rejecting the Christian idea of salvation and the afterlife, which gives meaning to the "Sisyphean labor" of man, K. paradoxically finds meaning in the struggle itself. Salvation, according to K., lies in everyday work, the meaning of life is in activity.
After the end of the war, K. for some time continued to work in the "Battle", which now becomes the official daily newspaper. However, political differences between the right and the left forced K., who considered himself an independent radical, to leave the newspaper in 1947. In the same year, the writer's third novel, "The Plague" ("La Reste"), was published, the story of the plague epidemic in the Algerian city of Oran; figuratively, however, "Plague" is the Nazi occupation of France and, more broadly, a symbol of death and evil. The theme of universal evil is also devoted to "Caligula" (1945), the best, according to the unanimous opinion of critics, the writer's play. Caligula, based on Suetonius's book On the Life of the Twelve Caesars, is considered a significant milestone in the history of the theater of the absurd.
As one of the leading figures in post-war French literature, K. at this time closely converges with Jean Paul Sartre. At the same time, the ways of overcoming the absurdity of being in Sartre and K. do not coincide, and in the early 50s. as a result of serious ideological differences, K. breaks with Sartre and with existentialism, of which Sartre was considered the leader. In "Rebellious Man" ("L" Homme revolte ", 1951) K. examines the theory and practice of protesting against power over the centuries, criticizing dictatorial ideologies, including communism and other forms of totalitarianism, which encroach on freedom and, consequently, on human dignity Although back in 1945 K. said that he had “too few points of contact with the now fashionable philosophy of existentialism, the conclusions of which are false,” it was the rejection of Marxism that led K. to break with the pro-Marxist-minded Sartre.
In the 50s. K. continues to write essays, plays, prose. In 1956, the writer publishes the ironic story "The Fall" ("La Chute"), in which the repentant judge Jean Baptiste Clamance confesses to his crimes against morality. Referring to the topic of guilt and repentance, K. makes extensive use of Christian symbolism in The Fall.
In 1957, Mr .. K. was awarded the Nobel Prize "for his enormous contribution to literature, highlighting the importance of human conscience." Presenting the prize to the French writer, Anders Esterling, a representative of the Swedish Academy, noted that "K.'s philosophical views were born in an acute contradiction between the acceptance of earthly existence and the awareness of the reality of death." In response, K. said that his work is based on the desire "to avoid outright lies and resist oppression."
When K. received the Nobel Prize, he was only 44 years old and he, in his own words, reached creative maturity; the writer had extensive creative plans, as evidenced by entries in notebooks and memories of friends. However, these plans were not destined to come true: in early 1960, the writer died in a car accident in the south of France.
Although K.'s work caused lively controversy after his death, many critics consider him one of the most significant figures of his time. K. showed the alienation and disillusionment of the post-war generation, but stubbornly sought a way out of the absurdity of modern existence. The writer was sharply criticized for rejecting Marxism and Christianity, but nevertheless, his influence on modern literature is beyond doubt. In an obituary published in the Italian newspaper "Evening Courier" ("Corriere della sera"), the Italian poet Eugenio Montale wrote that "K.'s nihilism does not exclude hope, does not free a person from solving a difficult problem: how to live and die with dignity."
According to the American researcher Susan Sontag, "K.'s prose is devoted not so much to his heroes as to the problems of guilt and innocence, responsibility and nihilistic indifference." Believing that K.'s work is not "distinguished by either high art or depth of thought", Sontag declares that "his works are distinguished by beauty of a completely different kind, moral beauty." The English critic A. Alvarez is of the same opinion, calling K. "a moralist who managed to raise ethical issues to philosophical ones."