Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913 in Algiers in 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 she was forced to move to relatives and become servants in order to somehow provide for her family.
Despite an extremely difficult childhood, Albert grew up as an open, kind child, able to feel and love nature.
He graduated with honors from elementary school and continued his studies at the Algiers Lyceum, where he became interested in the works of such authors as M. Proust, F. Nietzsche, A. Malraux. F.M. also read with enthusiasm. Dostoevsky.
During his studies, a landmark meeting takes place 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 shows an interest in philosophy.
1932 is associated with admission to the university. At this time, the first publications of notes and essays appeared, in which the influence of Proust, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche was clearly traced. Thus begins the creative path of one of the most famous writers of the 20th century. In 1937, a collection of philosophical reflections was published "Underside and face", in which the lyrical hero seeks to hide from the chaos of being and find peace in the wisdom of nature.
1938 to 1944 conventionally considered the first period in the writer's work. Camus works in the underground newspaper "Combat", which he himself headed after the liberation from the German occupation. At this time, drama is released "Caligula"(1944), short 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 judged and sentenced.”
“I often thought: if I were forced to live in the trunk of a withered tree, and it would be impossible to do anything at all, only to watch the sky bloom overhead, I would gradually get used to it.”
"The Stranger", 1942 - Albert Camus, quote"Every reasonable person, one way or another, has ever wished death on those he loves."
"The Stranger", 1942 - Albert Camus, quote“Everything starts with consciousness and nothing else matters.”
"The Myth of Sisyphus", 1944 - Albert Camus, quote
In 1947, a new, largest and, perhaps, the most powerful prose work of Camus, 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 mild distaste for the future"
The Plague, 1947 - Albert Camus, quote“In ordinary times, we all, consciously or not, understand that there is a love for which there are no limits, and yet we agree, and even quite calmly, that our love is, in essence, second-class. But human 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 as much damage as evil, if only this good will is not sufficiently enlightened.
"Plague", 1947 - Albert Camus, quote "
The first mention of the novel appears in Camus' notes in 1941 under the heading "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 work to see the light of day is "Rebellious Man"(1951), where Camus explores the origin of man's resistance against the internal and environmental absurdities of existence.
In 1956, the story appears "The fall", and a year later a collection of essays is published "Exile and Kingdom".
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 galley of his time not to row with others, even believing that the galley stank of herring, that there were too many overseers on it, and that, above all, wrong course taken."
He was buried in the cemetery at Lourmarin in southern France.
Albert Camus - French writer and philosopher, close to existentialism, received a common name during his lifetime "Conscience of the West". Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957 "for his enormous contribution to literature, highlighting the importance of human conscience."
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Camus, Albert (Camus, Albert) (1913-1960). Born November 7, 1913 in the Algerian village of Mondovi, 24 km south of the city of Bon (now Annaba), in the family of an agricultural worker. His father, an Alsatian by birth, died in the First World War. His mother, a Spaniard, moved with her two sons to Algiers, where Camus lived until 1939. In 1930, graduating from high school, he fell ill with tuberculosis, the consequences of which he suffered all his life. Becoming a student at the University of Algiers, he studied philosophy, interrupted by odd jobs.
Concerns about social problems led him to the Communist Party, but a year later he left it. He organized an amateur theater, from 1938 he took up journalism. Released in 1939 from military conscription for health reasons, in 1942 he joined the underground organization of the Resistance "Komba"; edited her illegal newspaper of the same name. Leaving in 1947 work in "Comba", he wrote journalistic articles for the press, subsequently collected in three books under the title Topical Notes (Actuelles, 1950, 1953, 1958).
Backside and face. Compositions
This book presents the philosophical legacy of the Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus.
The philosophy of Camus, like all good literature, is impossible to retell. You can talk to her, agreeing and objecting, but putting at stake not abstract arguments, but the experience of your own "existence", the metaphysical alignment of your fate, in which a wise and deep interlocutor will appear.
Caligula
"Caligula". The play, which has become a kind of creative manifesto of French existentialist literature - and still does not leave the stages of the whole world. A play in which, in the words of Jean Paul Sartre, "freedom becomes pain, and pain sets you free."
Years, decades have passed, but both literary critics and readers are still trying - each in his own way! — to comprehend the essence of the tragedy of the insane young emperor, who dared to look into the abyss of eternity...
The myth of Sisyphus
According to Homer, Sisyphus was the wisest and most prudent of mortals. True, according to another source, he traded in robbery. I don't see a contradiction here. There are different opinions about how he became the eternal worker of hell. He was reproached primarily for his frivolous attitude towards the gods. He divulged their secrets. Aegipah, the daughter of Ason, was abducted by Jupiter. The father was surprised at this disappearance and complained to Sisyphus. He, knowing about the abduction, offered Asop help, on the condition that Asop would give water to the citadel of Corinth. He preferred the blessing of earthly waters to heavenly lightning. The punishment for this was hellish torment. Homer also tells that Sisyphus shackled Death.
The fall
Be that as it may, after a long study of myself, I have established the deep duplicity of human nature.
Digging through my memory, I realized then that modesty helped me to shine, humility to win, and nobility to oppress. I waged war by peaceful means and, showing disinterestedness, I achieved everything that I wanted. For example, I never complained that I was not congratulated on my birthday, that this significant date was forgotten; my acquaintances were surprised at my modesty and almost admired it.
Outsider
A kind of creative manifesto that embodies the image of the search for absolute freedom. "Outsider" denies the narrowness of the moral standards of modern bourgeois culture.
The story is written in an unusual style - short phrases in the past tense. The cold style of the author later had a huge impact on European authors of the second half of the 20th century.
The story reveals the story of a man who committed a murder, who did not repent, refused to defend himself in court and was sentenced to death.
The opening line of the book became famous, “My mother died today. Maybe yesterday, I don't know for sure. Bright work full of existence, which brought Camus worldwide fame.
French writer, essayist and playwright Albert Camus was a literary representative of his generation. The obsession with philosophical problems of the meaning of life and the search for true values provided the writer with a cult status among readers and brought the Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44.
Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913 in Mondovi, Algeria, then part of France. His French father was killed during the First World War when Albert was one year old. The boy's mother, who is of Spanish origin, was able to provide a small income and housing in a poor area of Algiers through unskilled labor.
Albert's childhood was poor and sunny. Living in Algeria made Camus feel wealthy due to the temperate climate. Judging by the statement of Camus, he "lived in poverty, but also in sensual delight." His Spanish heritage gave him a sense of dignity in poverty and a passion for honor. Camus began writing at an early age.
At the University of Algiers, he brilliantly studied philosophy - the value and meaning of life, emphasizing the comparison of Hellenism and Christianity. While still a student, the guy founded the theater, at the same time directed and played in performances. At the age of 17, Albert fell ill with tuberculosis, which did not allow him to engage in sports, military and teaching activities. Camus worked in various positions before becoming a journalist in 1938.
His first published works were Backside and Face in 1937 and The Wedding Feast in 1939, a collection of essays on the meaning of life and its joys, as well as its meaninglessness. Albert Camus' writing style marked a break with the traditional bourgeois novel. He was less interested in psychological analysis than in philosophical problems.
Camus developed the idea of absurdism which provided the theme for much of his early work. Absurdity is the gulf between man's desire for happiness and a world that he can understand rationally, and the real world, which is confusing and irrational. The second stage of Camus' thought arose from the first: man must not only accept the absurd universe, but also "revolt" against it. This uprising is not political, but in the name of traditional values.
Camus' first novel, The Outsider, published in 1942, dealt with the negative aspect of man. The book is about a young clerk named Meursault, who is the narrator and main character. Meursault is alien to all the expected human emotions, he is a "lunatic" in life. The novel's crisis unfolds on a beach when the hero, embroiled in a quarrel through no fault of his own, shoots an Arab.
The second part of the novel is devoted to his trial for murder and sentence to death, which he understands in much the same way as why he killed an Arab. Meursault is absolutely honest in describing his feelings, and it is this honesty that makes him a "stranger" in the world and secures a guilty verdict. The overall situation symbolizes the absurd nature of life, and this effect is enhanced by the book's intentionally flat and colorless style.
Camus returned to Algeria in 1941 and completed his next book, The Myth of Sisyphus, also published in 1942. This is a philosophical essay on the nature of the meaninglessness of life. The mythical character Sisyphus, sentenced to eternity, lifts a heavy stone uphill only to have it roll down again. Sisyphus becomes a symbol of humanity and in his constant efforts achieves a certain sad victory.
In 1942, returning to France, Camus joined the Resistance group and was engaged in underground journalism until the Liberation in 1944, when he became editor of the Boy newspaper for 3 years. Also during this period, his first two plays were staged: "Misunderstanding" in 1944 and "Caligula" in 1945.
The main role in the first play was played by the actress Maria Cazares. Working with Camus turned into a deeper relationship lasting 3 years. Maria remained on friendly terms with Albert until his death. The main theme of the plays was the meaninglessness of life and the finality of death. It was in dramaturgy that Camus felt most successful.
In 1947, Albert published his second novel, The Plague. This time, Camus focused on the positive side of man. Describing a fictional bubonic plague attack in the Algerian city of Oran, he revisited the theme of absurdism, expressed by the senseless and completely undeserved suffering and death caused by the plague.
The narrator, Dr. Rieux, explained his ideal of "honesty" - that of a man who retains strength of character and tries his best, even if unsuccessfully, to fight against an outbreak of disease.
On one level, the novel can be seen as a fictional representation of the German occupation in France. "The Plague" was most widely known among readers as a symbol of the struggle against evil and suffering - the main moral problems of mankind.
Camus' next important book was The Rebellious Man. The collection includes 3 important philosophical works of the writer, without which it is difficult to fully understand his concept of existentialism. In his work, he asks questions: what is freedom and truth, what does the existence of a truly free person consist of. Life according to Camus is a rebellion. And it is worth arranging an uprising in order to truly live.
On June 16, 1934, Camus married Simone Hee, who had previously been engaged to the writer's friend Max-Paul Fouche. However, the happy personal life of the newlyweds did not last long - the couple broke up by July 1936, and the divorce was finalized in September 1940.
On December 3, 1940, Camus married Francine Faure, a pianist and mathematics teacher whom he met in 1937. Although Albert loved his wife, he did not believe in the institution of marriage. Despite this, the couple had twin daughters Catherine and Jean, born on September 5, 1945.
In 1957, Camus received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his writings. In the same year, Albert began work on a fourth important novel, and was also about to become director of a major Parisian theatre.
On January 4, 1960, he died in a car accident in the small town of Vilblevin. The writer was 46 years old. Although many have speculated that the cause of the writer's death was a Soviet-sponsored accident, there is no evidence for this. Camus was survived by his wife and children.
Two of his works were published posthumously: "A Happy Death", written in the late 1930s, and published in 1971, and "The First Man" (1994), which Camus wrote at the time of his death. The death of the writer was a tragic loss for literature, since he still had to write works at a more mature and conscious age and expand his creative biography.
After the death of Albert Camus, many world directors took up the works of the Frenchman to film them. There have already been 6 films based on the books of the philosopher, and one fictional biography, which contains original quotes from the writer and shows his real photos.
"It is common for every generation to consider themselves called to remake the world"
"I don't want to be a genius, I have enough of the problems that I face trying to be just a man"
"Knowing that we are going to die makes our life a joke"
"Travel as the greatest and most serious science helps us rediscover ourselves"
French writer and thinker, Nobel Prize winner (1957), one of the brightest representatives of the literature of existentialism. In his artistic and philosophical work, he developed the existential categories of "existence", "absurdity", "rebellion", "freedom", "moral choice", "limiting 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 artistic prose, the author's creative heritage includes dramaturgy, philosophical essays, literary critical articles, publicistic speeches.
He was born on November 7, 1913 in Algiers, in the family of a rural worker who died from a severe 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, 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 1937, he published the first collection of essays, The Inside Out and the Face.
In 1938, the first novel, Happy Death, was written.
In 1940 he moved to Paris, but because of the German offensive, he lived and taught for some time in Oran, where he completed the story "The Outsider", 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 Komba, 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 The Plague (1947) appeared, which brought the author world fame, the plays The 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 a fruitful combination 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 significant importance. One of the most important factors in the formation of his existentialist worldview was the early experience of discovering the proximity of death (while still a student, Camus fell ill with pulmonary tuberculosis). As a thinker, he is attributed to the atheistic branch of existentialism.
Paphos, denial of the values of bourgeois civilization, concentration on the ideas of the absurdity of being and rebellion, characteristic of the work of A. Camus, were the reason for his rapprochement with the pro-communist-minded 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 went to break with his former associates and comrades, because he had no illusions about the "communist paradise" in the former USSR and wanted to reconsider his relationship with "left" existentialism.
While still a novice writer, A. Camus drew up a plan for the future creative path, which was to combine the three facets of his talent and, accordingly, the three areas of his interests - literature, philosophy and theater. There were such stages - "absurd", "rebellion", "love". The writer consistently implemented his plan, alas, at the third stage, his creative path was cut short by death.
Man is an unstable being. He has a sense of fear, hopelessness and despair. At least, this is the view expressed by the adherents of existentialism. Close to this philosophical doctrine was Albert Camus. The biography and creative path of the French writer is the topic of this article.
Camus was born in 1913. His father was a native of Alsace and his mother was Spanish. Albert Camus had very painful childhood memories. The biography of this writer is closely connected with his life. However, for each poet or prose writer, their own experiences serve as a source of inspiration. But in order to understand the cause of the depressive mood that reigns in the books of the author, which will be discussed in this article, one should learn a little about the main events of his childhood and adolescence.
Camus' father was a poor man. He was engaged in hard physical labor at a winery. His family was on the brink of disaster. But when a significant battle took place near the Marne River, the life of Camus Sr.'s wife and children became completely hopeless. The fact is that this historical event, although it was crowned with the defeat of the enemy German army, had tragic consequences for the fate of the future writer. During the Battle of the Marne, Camus' father died.
Left without a breadwinner, the family was on the verge of poverty. This period was reflected in his early work by Albert Camus. The books "Marriage" and "Inside Out and Face" are dedicated to childhood spent in need. In addition, during these years, young Camus suffered from tuberculosis. Unbearable conditions and a serious illness did not discourage the future writer from striving for knowledge. After leaving school, he entered the university at the Faculty of Philosophy.
Years of study at the University of Algiers had a huge impact on Camus' worldview. During this period, he made friends with the once famous essayist Jean Grenier. It was during his student years that the first collection of short stories was created, which was called "Islands". For some time he was a member of the Communist Party Albert Camus. His biography, nevertheless, is more connected with such names as Shestov, Kierkegaard and Heidegger. They belong to thinkers whose philosophy largely determined the main theme of Camus's work.
Albert Camus was an extremely active person. His biography is rich. As a student, he played sports. Then, after graduating from university, he worked as a journalist and traveled a lot. The philosophy of Albert Camus was formed not only under the influence of contemporary thinkers. For some time he was fond of the work of Fyodor Dostoevsky. According to some reports, he even played in an amateur theater, where he happened to play the role of Ivan Karamazov. During the capture of Paris, at the beginning of the First World War, Camus was in the French capital. He was not taken to the front due to a serious illness. But even in this difficult period, Albert Camus led a rather active social and creative activity.
In 1941, the writer gave private lessons, took an active part in the activities of one of the underground Parisian organizations. At the beginning of the war, Albert Camus wrote his most famous work. The Plague is a novel that was published in 1947. In it, the author reflected the events in Paris, occupied by German troops, in a complex symbolic form. Albert Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for this novel. The wording - "For the important role of literary works that confront people with the problems of modernity with penetrating seriousness."
The plague starts suddenly. Residents of the city leave their homes. But not all. There are townspeople who believe that the epidemic is nothing but punishment from above. And don't run. You have to be humble. One of the heroes - the pastor - is an ardent supporter of this position. But the death of an innocent boy forces him to rethink his point of view.
People are trying to escape. And the plague suddenly recedes. But even after the worst days are behind, the hero does not leave the thought that the plague can return again. The epidemic in the novel symbolizes fascism, which claimed millions of inhabitants of Western and Eastern Europe during the war years.
In order to understand what the main philosophical idea of this writer is, one should read one of his novels. In order to feel the mood that reigned in the first years of the war among thinking people, it is worth getting acquainted with the novel "The Plague", which Albert wrote in 1941 from this work - the sayings of an outstanding philosopher of the 20th century. One of them - "In the midst of disasters, you get used to the truth, namely, to silence."
At the center of the French writer's work is the consideration of the absurdity of human existence. The only way to deal with him, according to Camus, is to recognize him. The highest embodiment of absurdity is an attempt to improve society through violence, namely fascism and Stalinism. In the works of Camus, there is a pessimistic belief that evil cannot be defeated completely. Violence breeds more violence. And a rebellion against him cannot lead to anything good at all. It is this position of the author that can be felt while reading the novel "The Plague".
At the beginning of the war, Albert Camus wrote many essays and stories. Briefly it is worth saying about the story "The Outsider". This work is quite difficult to understand. But it is precisely in it that the author's opinion regarding the absurdity of human existence is reflected.
The story "The Outsider" is a kind of manifesto, which was proclaimed in his early work by Albert Camus. Quotes from this work can hardly say anything. In the book, a special role is played by the monologue of the hero, who is monstrously impartial to everything that happens around him. “The condemned is obliged to morally participate in the execution” - this phrase is perhaps the key.
The hero of the story is a man in a sense inferior. Its main feature is indifference. He is indifferent to everything: to the death of his mother, to someone else's grief, to his own moral decline. And only before his death, pathological indifference to the world around him leaves him. And it is at this moment that the hero realizes that he cannot escape the indifference of the world around him. He is sentenced to death for the murder he committed. And all he dreams about in the last minutes of his life is not to see indifference in the eyes of people who will watch his death.
This story was published three years before the death of the writer. The works of Albert Camus, as a rule, belong to the philosophical genre. Fall is no exception. In the story, the author creates a portrait of a man who is an artistic symbol of modern European society. The hero's name is Jean-Baptiste, which is translated from French as John the Baptist. However, the character of Camus has little in common with the biblical one.
In The Fall, the author uses a technique characteristic of the Impressionists. The story is told in the form of a stream of consciousness. The hero tells about his life to the interlocutor. At the same time, he tells about the sins that he committed, without a shadow of regret. Jean-Baptiste personifies the selfishness and scarcity of the inner world of the Europeans, the writer's contemporaries. According to Camus, they are not interested in anything other than achieving their own pleasure. The narrator periodically digresses from his biography, expressing his point of view on this or that philosophical issue. As in other works of art by Albert Camus, in the center of the plot of the story "The Fall" is a man of an unusual psychological warehouse, which allows the author to reveal in a new way the eternal problems of being.
In the late forties, Camus became a freelance journalist. He permanently stopped public activities in any political organizations. During this time he created several dramatic works. The most famous of them are "Righteous", "State of Siege".
The theme of the rebellious personality in the literature of the 20th century was quite relevant. The disagreement of a person and his unwillingness to live according to the laws of society is a problem that worried many authors in the sixties and seventies of the last century. One of the founders of this literary trend was Albert Camus. His books, written in the early fifties, are imbued with a sense of disharmony and a sense of despair. "Rebellious Man" is a work that the writer devoted to the study of a person's protest against the absurdity of existence.
If in his student years Camus was actively interested in the socialist idea, then in adulthood he became an opponent of left-wing radicals. In his articles, he repeatedly raised the topic of violence and authoritarianism of the Soviet regime.
In 1960, the writer died tragically. His life was cut short on the road from Provence to Paris. As a result of a car accident, Camus died instantly. In 2011, a version was put forward, according to which the death of the writer is not an accident. The accident was allegedly set up by members of the Soviet secret service. However, this version was later refuted by Michel Onfret, the author of the writer's biography.
