Albert Camus, short biography. Albert Camus short biography of Camus works

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 Wrong Side 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 with. 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 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."

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 nietzscheanism... 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."

Albert Camus Born on November 7, 1913 in Mondovi (now Drean), Algeria - died on January 4, 1960 in Villevin (France). A French writer and philosopher close to existentialism, he was called "The Conscience of the West." Winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Albert Camus belongs to the representatives of atheistic existentialism, his views are usually characterized as irreligious and atheistic. Critic of religion; during the preparation of The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus expresses one of the key ideas of his philosophy: “If there is a sin against life, then it is evidently not in the fact that they do not cherish hopes, but in the fact that they rely on life in another world and shy away from the merciless majesty of this worldly life. " At the same time, the attribution of the supporters of atheistic (non-religious) existentialism to atheism is partly conditional, and Camus, along with disbelief in God, the recognition that God is dead, affirms the absurdity of life without God. Camus himself did not consider himself an atheist.

Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913 to a Franco-Algerian family in Algeria, on the Sant Pol farm near Mondovi. His father, Lucien Camus, of Alsatian origin, was a wine cellar keeper at a wine company, served in the light infantry during the First World War, was fatally wounded at the Battle of the Marne in 1914 and died in the infirmary. Mother Cutrin Sante, a Spaniard, semi-deaf and illiterate, moved with Albert and his older brother Lucien to the Bellecour area of ​​the city of Algeria, lived in poverty under the supervision of a willful grandmother. Kutrin, to support her family, worked first in a factory, then as a cleaner.

In 1918, Albert began attending primary school, which he graduated with honors in 1923. Usually, peers in his circle dropped out of school and went to work to help families, but elementary school teacher Louis Germain was able to convince relatives of the need for Albert to continue his education, prepared a gifted boy to enter the lyceum and secured a scholarship. Subsequently, Camus gratefully dedicated the Nobel speech to the teacher. At the Lyceum, Albert became deeply acquainted with French culture, read a lot. He began to play football seriously, played for the youth team of the "Racing Universitaire d" Alger "club, later claimed that sports and play in the team influenced the formation of his attitude to morality and duty. In 1930, Camus was diagnosed with tuberculosis, he was forced to to interrupt his education and permanently stop playing sports (although he retained his love of football for life), spent several months in a sanatorium. Despite his recovery, he suffered from the consequences of an illness for many years. reason he was not drafted into the army.

In 1932-1937, Albert Camus studied at the University of Algiers (English) Russian, where he studied philosophy. During my studies at the university I also read a lot, started keeping diaries, wrote essays. During this time was influenced by. His friend was the teacher Jean Grenier, a writer and philosopher who had a significant influence on the young Albert Camus. Along the way, Camus was forced to work and changed several professions: a private teacher, a salesman of spare parts, an assistant at the meteorological institute. In 1934 he married Simone Iye (divorced in 1939), an extravagant nineteen-year-old girl who turned out to be a morphine addict. In 1935 he received a bachelor's degree and in May 1936 a master's degree in philosophy with the work "Neoplatonism and Christian Thought" on the influence of Plotinus' ideas on the theology of Aurelius Augustine. Began work on the story "Happy Death". At the same time, Camus entered the problems of existentialism: in 1935 he studied the works of S. Kierkegaard, L. Shestov, M. Heidegger, K. Jaspers; in 1936-1937 he got acquainted with the ideas of the “absurdity of life” by A. Malraux.

In his senior years at the university, he became interested in socialist ideas. In the spring of 1935, he joined the French Communist Party, in solidarity with the 1934 uprising in Asturias. He was in the local cell of the French Communist Party for more than a year, until he was expelled for ties with the Algerian People's Party, accused of "Trotskyism."

In 1936 he created the amateur Theater of Labor (fr. Théâtre du Travail), renamed in 1937 into the Theater of the team (fr. Théâtre de l "Equipe). Organized, in particular, the production of" The Brothers Karamazov "after Dostoevsky, played Ivan Karamazov. In 1936-1937 he traveled to France, Italy and the countries of Central Europe. In 1937 the first collection of essays "The Wrong Side and the Face" was published.

After graduating from university, Camus headed the Algerian House of Culture for some time, in 1938 he was the editor of the magazine "Coast", then the left-wing oppositional opposition newspapers "Alge Republiken" and "Suar Republiken". On the pages of these publications, Camus at that time advocated for a socially oriented policy and the improvement of the situation of the Arab population of Algeria. Both newspapers were closed by military censorship after the outbreak of World War II. During these years, Camus wrote mainly essays and journalistic materials. In 1938 the book "Marriage" was published. In January 1939, the first version of the play "Caligula" was written.

After the banning of Suar Republiken in January 1940, Camus and his future wife Francine Faure, a mathematician by education, moved to Oran, where they gave private lessons. Two months later we moved from Algeria to Paris.

In Paris, Albert Camus is the technical editor for the Paris-Soir newspaper. In May 1940, the story "The Stranger" was completed. In December of the same year, the opposition-minded Camus was fired from Paris-Soir and, not wanting to live in an occupied country, he returned to Oran, where he taught French at a private school. In February 1941, the Myth of Sisyphus was completed.

Camus soon joined the ranks of the Resistance Movement and became a member of the underground organization Comba, again in Paris.

In 1942, The Stranger was published, in 1943 - The Myth of Sisyphus. In 1943 he began to publish in the underground newspaper Komba, then became its editor. From the end of 1943 he began to work in the publishing house "Gallimard" (he worked with him until the end of his life). During the war, he published under the pseudonym "Letters to a German Friend" (later published as a separate edition). In 1943 he met Sartre, took part in staging his plays (in particular, it was Camus who first uttered the phrase “Hell is the other” from the stage).

After the end of the war, Camus continued to work at Comba, published his previously written works, which brought the writer popularity. In 1947, his gradual break with the left movement and personally with Sartre began. He leaves Komba, becomes a freelance journalist - writes journalistic articles for various publications (later published in three collections under the title "Hot Notes"). At this time, he created the plays "The State of Siege" and "The Righteous."

Collaborates with anarchists and revolutionary syndicalists and is published in their magazines and newspapers Liberter, Le Monde Liberter, Revolucion Proletarian, Solidariad Obrera (publication of the Spanish National Confederation of Labor) and others. Participates in the creation of the "Group of International Relations".

In 1951, the anarchist magazine "Liberter" published "The Rebellious Man", where Camus explores the anatomy of human rebellion against the surrounding and inner absurdity of existence. Left-wing critics, including Sartre, saw this as a rejection of the political struggle for socialism (which, according to Camus, leads to the establishment of authoritarian regimes like Stalin's). Even more criticism of the radical left was caused by Camus' support of the French community of Algeria after the Algerian war that began in 1954. For some time, Camus collaborated with UNESCO, but after Spain became a member of this organization in 1952, led by Franco, he ceased his work there. Camus continues to closely follow the political life of Europe, in his diaries he regrets the growth of pro-Soviet sentiments in France and the readiness of the French left to turn a blind eye to the crimes of the communist authorities in Eastern Europe, their unwillingness to see the expansion of non-socialism and justice in the Soviet-sponsored "Arab revival" but violence and authoritarianism.

He is more and more fascinated by the theater, since 1954 he began to stage plays based on his own performances, negotiates the opening of the Experimental Theater in Paris. In 1956, Camus wrote the story "The Fall", the next year the collection of stories "Exile and the Kingdom" was published.

In 1957, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his enormous contribution to literature, highlighting the importance of the human conscience." In a speech on the occasion of the presentation of the prize, describing his position in life, he said that “he is 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, in addition to everything , the wrong course is taken. "

On the afternoon of January 4, 1960, a car in which Albert Camus, along with the family of his friend Michel Gallimard, the nephew of the publisher Gaston Gallimard, was returning from Provence to Paris, flew off the road and crashed into a plane tree near the town of Villebleuvin, a hundred kilometers from Paris. Camus died instantly. Gallimard, who was driving, died in the hospital two days later, his wife and daughter survived. Among the writer's personal belongings were found a manuscript of the unfinished story "The First Man" and an unused train ticket. Albert Camus was buried in the Lourmarin cemetery in the Luberon region in southern France.

In 2011, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera made public a version according to which the car accident was rigged by the Soviet secret services as revenge on the writer for his condemnation of the Soviet invasion of Hungary and support. Among those who knew about the planned murder, the newspaper named the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Shepilov. Michel Onfray, who prepared the publication of Camus's biography, rejected this version in the Izvestia newspaper as an insinuation.

In November 2009, French President Nicolas Sarkozy offered to transfer the writer's ashes to the Pantheon, but did not receive the consent of Albert Camus's relatives.

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