Journal of Camus Studies 2021

By Camus Society

The Albert Camus Society is an international organisation made up of three groups: The Albert Camus Societies of the UK, US and Poland. Together we hold a joint annual conference and publish the Journal of Camus Studies (JCS). The purpose of the Society is summed up in the mission statement for the JCS: … an interdisciplinary forum for scholarly conversation about the life and work of Albert Camus. … [to be] at the centre of contemporary academic debate and discussion about Camus. [To] provide a genuinely international and interdisciplinary scholarly resource for exploration and examination of the thought of Albert Camus and his contemporaries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781447662747

Book preview

Journal of Camus Studies

2021

Journal of Camus Studies

2021

General Editor

Peter Francev

The Albert Camus Society

Camus Society

2021

Journal of Camus Studies 2021

General Editor: Peter Francev

Book Reviews Editor: Eric B. Berg

Book Design: Helen Lea

Cover Design: Simon Lea

The purpose of the Journal of Camus Studies is to further understanding of the work and thought of Albert Camus.

The Journal of Camus Studies is a publication of the Albert Camus Society. The material contained in this journal represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Albert Camus Society or anyone affiliated with the society.

Copyright © 2023 by Camus Society

Copyright for all articles is retained with the author[s]. Single copies of articles may be made for research and/or private study without permission. Permission for multiple copies should be sought from the author[s]. Authors can be contacted through the society.

First Printing: 2023

www.camus-society.com

ISBN: 978-1-4476-6274-7

Contents

Editor’s Introduction

Section One: Essays

The Transcendent Power of Nature in Camus’s Theatre

Sophie Bastien

A Defense of Camus’s Invisible Arabs in The Plague by way of Steven Leuthold’s Indigenous Aesthetics

Eric B. Berg

Camusian Absurdism and Cosmic Injustice

Stephen J. Sullivan

Championing the Absurd: The Despotic Communal and Individualism

Anugraha Bhatta

Meursault, the Absurd, and Alexithymia

Jessiah Hahs Brinkley

Albert Camus’ Mythopoeic Response to Nietzsche: The Use of Myth in The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus

Simon Lea

Section Two: Book Reviews

Book Review: Albert Camus Speaking Out: Lectures and Speeches, 1937-1958, By Albert Camus

Eric B. Berg

Journal of Camus Studies: Manuscript Submission Guidelines

Editor’s Introduction

Dear Reader-

I would like to welcome you to the current issue of The Journal of Camus Studies. As you can imagine, this issue is a little behind schedule, because of the disruption due to the pandemic. I would like to thank our regular subscribers who have been so incredibly patient during the past two years, and I hope that this issue will not disappoint.

Sophie Bastien’s essay ‘The Transcendent Power of Nature in Camus’s Theatre’ is divided into three parts. First, it highlights the important role that nature, landscapes, and even the cosmos play in Albert Camus’s works of fiction, as well as in his philosophical thought especially when it comes close to pantheism. The second part of the article considers Camus’s drama production, particularly the plays Caligula, The Misunderstanding and The State of Siege. In these three plays, forces and elements of nature are evoked more or less frequently but always with great intensity, which is highly significant. Bastien examines the meanings, connotations and symbolism of these occurrences, and outline the differences of those meanings from one play to another. The final part of the essay explores the staging of The State of Siege that the director Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota presented in 2017 in France. Bastien captures how the intervention of natural elements, clearly specified in the text of the play, has been made noticeable for the spectators.

Next is Eric Berg’s essay ‘A Defense of Camus’s Invisible Arabs in The Plague by way of Steven Leuthold’s Indigenous Aesthetics’. Here, Berg offers a defense of Camus’s silence based on the work of American scholar Steven Leuthold drawn primarily from his work Indigenous Aesthetics: Native Art, Media, and Identity. Berg argues that The Plague is the novel that Camus has suffered considerable and well-deserved attacks on his silence regarding the Arab population. He uses Leuthold’s work on American Indians and extends his claims to indigenous persons in North Africa.  To simplify the argument and allow it to accurately reflect his writing, Berg makes the case that ‘Arab’ in The Plague and for the purposes of this argument, are those who are not pied noir or of mixed birth and identify primarily as non-French.  Thus, there are the two dominate groups, the Arabs and the pied noir, with a few others like Bedouin, Jews, and other settlers in Oran also kept out of the narrative.  To this end, this is not a paper about Camus’s definition of these groups, it is an argument in defense of his silence regarding others that are outside his group, the pied noir. 

Steve Sullivan’s essay ‘Camusian Absurdism and Cosmic Injustice’ looks to offer a critical examination and revision of Albert Camus’s absurdist philosophy, especially as it is presented in The Myth of Sisyphus (1942) and—to a lesser extent—The Rebel (1951).  He begins by outlining Camus’s general account of the absurdity of human life and raise a serious problem for it. Next, Sullivan gives a somewhat more specific account of Camusian absurdism that—when rationally reconstructed--connects it with unfulfilled longing for transcendent or supernatural meaning, and I raise a serious problem for this account as well.  Boldly, Sullivan the offers a major revision according to which the absurdity of human life consists in the conflict between the human longing for justice and the evident failure of the world to satisfy that longing.  The result is an ethical variation of Camusian absurdism with an emphasis on the role of cosmic injustice. He provides some textual grounds for this variation, drawing on The Rebel as well as The Myth of Sisyphus, without pretending that it captures all or even most of what Camus says about the absurd.  Finally, he also argues that this analysis and reading of Camus solves some of the problems that his absurdist philosophy faces and offers other advantages too. 

Next are two essays by two undergraduate students, Anu Bhatta and Jessiah Brinkley. In ‘Championing the Absurd: The Despotic Communal and Individualism’, Bhatta explores how individuals may champion or fight for a particular ideal to convey ideas about the appropriate way to champion absurdism at large. For example, in Caligula, Caligula, has an absurd realization after the death of his sister and mistress, Drusilla: life is meaningless, and man is indeed mortal. Subsequently, Caligula, a man with absolute power as emperor, takes it upon himself to disseminate his newfound absurd convictions to his contemporaries through whatever means necessary; often, Caligula’s approaches are brutal and cruel, which help cement his role as a despotic communal champion of absurdity. In The Just Assassins, however, Camus takes on a more individualistic perspective. Within the play, a group of five socialist revolutionaries who live during the tsarist regime in Russia fight for what they believe to be justice. Consequently, many in the group dispute the ethics of assassination, the proper time to kill the Grand Duke, and the role each assassin should play; thus, the group debates the appropriate way to fight for justice and against the greater despotic tsar. Amid these disputes, Camus highlights the role and individualism of each assassin in terms of fighting for an ideal; at the same time, Camus shifts focus from the entire group to a particular assassin in an attempt to further his ideas on individualism and underscore the vital role of personal experience in shaping the perspectives of individualistic championship this particular scenario, while not initially seeming to relate to the philosophy of the absurd, is nevertheless an instance of complex symbolism Camus uses to portray his contentions of championship at large; more specifically, the notion that championing the absurd individualistically is preferred to the despotic communal. Finally, by exemplifying the similarities between the Caligula with the French historical figure Robspiere, Camus rejects the idea of championing the absurd through the despotic communal but instead emphasizes the need to champion the absurd individualistically, as seen in The Just Assassins.

Brinkley’s essay ‘Meursault, the Absurd and Alexithymia’ is the final essay in this year’s journal. Here, Brinkley argues that The Stranger has long drawn a variety of opinions as to its style, its structure, and its meaning, and often these opinions focus on the character of Meursault. To the question as to why he acts the way he does, some suggest that it is because he is mentally abnormal; others say that he is just evil and therefore further explanation is impossible; while still others postulate that he is the epitome of Camus’s absurdist philosophy. Amongst the many viewpoints, Steven Poser suggests in his work, The Unconscious Motivation to Become a Murderer in The Stranger, published in the 2009 edition of The Journal of the Albert Camus Society, that Meursault is indeed mentally abnormal, having developed the personality trait of alexithymia, which inhibits his ability to process or understand emotion. This would explain why Meursault seems to act so detached in almost all situations where emotion might otherwise arise, such as in his relationship with Marie, and during his time in court and in the prison. But an explanation of Meursault’s anomalous behaviors strictly from the viewpoint of alexithymia may falter in light of a close reading of the text, and be difficult to defend in the face of competing interpretations put forward by other scholars of Camus such as: Mary Gennuso, Kurt Blankschaen, and Simon Lea.

The final essay ‘Albert Camus’ Mythopoeic Response to Nietzsche: The Use of Myth in The Stranger and The Myth Of Sisyphus’ is by Simon Lea. In this extended double-length essay, we are offered a new way of reading The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus in relation to Camus’ reception of Nietzsche. Lea demonstrates the value of taking seriously Camus’ mythopoesis in order to best understand his response to Nietzsche. As well as a thorough account of mythopoesis itself, we are given a detailed analysis of Camus’s early texts and a comprehensive account of Nietzsche’s Gay Science 341 and 125 in which he treats the concept of the eternal return and the death of God. In this study on the use of myth in Camus’ works, Lea aims to shed light on some of the difficult questions commonly found in the secondary literature, in particular questions on how we ought to receive the difficult and controversial character of Meursault. He argues that Meursault, whom Camus infamously referred to as the only Christ we deserve, is best received as mythical hero, such as those found in the Bible.

There is only one book for review for this issue. Eric Berg looks at a new edition of Camus’s political speeches in Speaking Out.

Beginning with the 2022 Journal of Camus Studies, I am asking that all contributors please follow the Chicago style (16th ed), with all citations embedded as footnotes. Our 2022 issue will be out in 2023, and it will be a compendium of conference papers from the 2022 Albert Camus Society annual conference which was held in the autumn of 2022 in London.

Dr Peter Francev

President, Albert Camus Society USA

Editor, Journal of Camus Studies

Section One: Essays

The Transcendent Power of Nature in Camus’s Theatre

Sophie Bastien

Abstract: This article is divided into three parts. First, it highlights the important role that nature, landscapes, and even the cosmos play in Albert Camus’s works of fiction, as well as in his philosophical thought especially when it comes close to pantheism. In order to do so, I take into account several literary texts written by this author. The second part of the article considers Camus’ drama production, particularly the plays Caligula (1944), The Misunderstanding (Le Malentendu, 1944) and The State of Siege (L’État de siège, 1948). In these three plays, forces and elements of nature are evoked more or less frequently but always with great intensity, which is highly significant. I therefore examine the meanings, connotations and symbolism of these occurrences, and outline the differences of those meanings from one play to another. The third and last part of the article refers to the staging of The State of Siege that the director Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota presented in 2017 in France (at Paris and Rennes), then in international tour. I capture how the intervention of natural elements, clearly specified in the text of the play, has been made noticeable for the spectators: What stage facilities have been used, what artistic languages and non-verbal poetry have been created? In the end, what were the effects, the impacts on the spectators? Which sensations could they perceive, which insights could they get?

Forces and elements of nature, landscapes, and even the cosmos are evoked frequently and with great intensity in Camus’s works of fiction, as well as in his philosophical thought. Camus assigns them very significant roles, which evolve over the course of his works. This is what I intend to study, in three acts: first, generally in his literary work; next, specifically in his dramas; finally, in the staging of one of his plays.

1. Nature and Landscapes in Camus’s Thought

In his youth during the 1930s, Camus published a collection of essays that were almost pantheistic; its title says much: Nuptials. The collection celebrates ‘nuptials’ with landscapes, an amorous union with nature. It extols lyrical and idealistic emotion. Twenty years later, the short story entitled ‘The Adulterous Woman’ depicts other ‘nuptials’ with nature, these more sensual than philosophical: the orgasmic ecstasy of a woman in front of the immensity of the starry night. Meanwhile, the novel The Outsider (The Stranger) is not animated by a similar passion for life, but nature plays an equally important role. It fulfills a destructive function when, under the intense pressure of the sun’s brilliance and burning heat, it drives the protagonist Meursault to murder.¹ In contrast, when the latter is imprisoned in a cramped, dark cell while awaiting his trial, he clings to the bars of a small window to see the light and the sea. He remains focused on the sky, the dawn and the dusk, as if the sight of the light, colours and infinite spaces had health benefits that compensate for his cell—not physically of course, but at least mentally.

In the three works I have addressed so far, the relationship with nature is an individual experience. It is different in Letters to a German Friend, four short essays denouncing Nazism in the middle of World War II. Camus contends that nature’s beauty should not be lost in the context of this collective tragedy. Quite the opposite: the love of nature can feed the optimism of a people brought down by the heavy ordeal of war. For this reason, Camus urges that ‘the memory of a happy sea, of a remembered hill’ be kept.² With the cycle of the seasons, optimism becomes unwavering even: ‘all those landscapes, those flowers and those plowed fields, the oldest of lands show you every spring that there are things you cannot choke in blood.’³ Despite man’s destruction of man, the contemplation of nature brings promise and emboldens hope as it provides a