![]() ![]() Later in the book, Camus turns to literature in an effort to see if absurd art is possible. Camus feels all of them have one fatal flaw (aside, perhaps, from Nietzsche): that they try to resolve the absurd, rather than finding a way to live with it in full view. Accordingly, Soren Kierkegaard, Karl Jaspers, Edmund Husserl and Friedrich Nietzsche all crop up intermittently throughout the work. In fact, Camus explicitly claims not to be a philosopher, such is the distinction he draws between himself and these other writers. In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus defines his philosophy of absurdism-which, in brief, is the confrontation between man’s longing for meaning and the world’s refusal to provide it-through discussion of other philosophers. For Camus, mankind’s longing for meaning in a meaningless world was a fact of existence in the past and will remain so in the future.Ĭamus studied philosophy at university, and an inquiry into the meaning of life-or lack of-forms the basis of much of his work. That is, though the warring of the twentieth century might have heightened the futility of life-made it more prominently visible-Camus sees the problem of absurdity as one simply fundamental to the human condition. In employing the Greek myth of Sisyphus, though, Camus is keen to stress the ahistorical nature of what he is discussing. ![]() Furthermore, Camus’ military service kept him away from his native Algeria, perhaps evidenced by the book’s recurrent mention of man’s exile from the world (or from understanding the world). Perhaps this historical moment can be detected in The Myth of Sisyphus, which represents nothing less than an inquiry into the apparent meaninglessness of life. The Vichy government had capitulated to the Nazis, surrendering Paris and much of the rest of France too. His father was a casualty of World War I, and not long after Camus found himself part of the French Resistance during World War II. ![]() Camus was married twice, but had strong criticisms of the institution.Īlbert Camus began writing at a turbulent time in the history of mankind. He died in 1960 as the result of a car accident. In 1957, Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (becoming the second youngest recipient after Rudyard Kipling). The Plague followed in 1947, and The Fall in 1952. Also that year, he published his first novel The Outsider (also translated as The Stranger). In 1942, Camus published The Myth of Sisyphus, the first of a number of works that strove to look at the meaning of life and elucidate Camus’ theory of absurdism. It was during his military service, too, that he met Jean-Paul Sartre, the existential philosopher. Camus joined the French Resistance at the beginning of World War II, and worked for an underground resistance newspaper, eventually becoming its editor in 1943. In 1930 he contracted tuberculosis, causing him to give up playing soccer (he was a skillful goalkeeper) and meaning he had to study part-time. Here he developed his sense of political engagement, joining first the Communist Party and later the Algerian People’s Party. Showing aptitude for his schooling, Camus was accepted to the University of Algiers. Camus’ mother, an illiterate house cleaner, brought him up thereafter. His father, Lucien, died in World War I when Camus was still a baby. Albert Camus was born in Algeria when it was still a French colony. During lockdown he succumbed to the muse and has had several poems published, mainly in Snakeskin, Light and New Verse News. Joe Crocker was given a copy of Camus’ Myth of Sisyphus sometime in the 1970s by his student flatmate. My fate waits at the bottom with the boulder. Only struggle and the balance and the stone. My fate is mine to steer, to scorn or hold to. The grip, the heave, the angle, and the groan.Īt long last hope and hopelessness are gone. Its weight is what I want against my shoulder. I brace for balance when I work the stone. The point is to embrace the struggle with it, and to live without falling prey to despair, or hope, including in the supernatural. Camus argued that this symbolises the human condition, true for all of us: the world is without meaning, and our lives are inescapably absurd. The gods condemned Sisyphus to roll a boulder up a hill for all eternity. ![]()
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