(1913 - 1960) in the 50s. was one of the "rulers of thoughts" of the world intelligentsia. The first publications that opened the first period of creativity, two small books of short lyrical essays “Inside Out and Face” (1937) and “Marriages” (1939) were published in Algeria. In 1938 Camus wrote the play "Caligula".
At the time, he was an active participant in the resistance. In those years, he published the essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" and the story "The Outsider" (1942), ending the first period of creativity.
Appeared in 1943 - 1944. “Letters to a German Friend” opens the second period of creativity, which lasted until the end of his life. The most significant works of this period are: the novel The Plague (1947); theatrical mystery "State of Siege" (1948); the play The Righteous (1949); the essay "Rebellious Man" (1951); the story "The Fall" (1956); a collection of short stories "Exile and Kingdom" (1957), etc. Camus also published three books of "Topical Notes" during this period (1950, 1953, 1958). In 1957, Albert Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize. Posthumously published his novel " happy death” and “Notebooks”.
It is not easy to get an idea of the philosophy of Albert Camus, since the views expressed in his literary and philosophical works, “provide an opportunity for a wide variety of interpretations.” For all that, the nature of this philosophy, its problems and orientation have allowed historians of philosophy to unanimously evaluate it as a kind of existentialism. The worldview of A. Camus and his work reflected the features of the development of the European philosophical tradition.
Camus did not doubt the reality of the world, he was aware of the importance of movement in it. The world, in his opinion, is not arranged rationally. It is hostile to man, and this hostility goes back to us through the millennia. Everything we know about him is unreliable. The world is constantly eluding us. In his conception of being, the philosopher proceeded from the fact that "being can reveal itself only in becoming, while becoming is nothing without being." Being is reflected in consciousness, but “as long as the mind is silent in the motionless world of its hopes, everything reciprocally echoes and is ordered in the unity it so desires. But at the very first movement, this whole world cracks and collapses: an infinite number of shimmering fragments offer themselves to knowledge. Camus considers knowledge as a source of transformation of the world, but he warns against the unreasonable use of knowledge.
Philosopher agreed that science deepens our knowledge about the world and man, but he pointed out that this knowledge is still imperfect. In his opinion, science still does not give an answer to the most urgent question - the question of the purpose of existence and the meaning of everything that exists. People are thrown into this world, into this story. They are mortal, and life appears before them as an absurdity in an absurd world. What is a person to do in such a world? Camus suggests in the essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” to concentrate and, with maximum clarity of mind, realize the fate that has fallen and courageously bear the burden of life, not resigning itself to difficulties and rebelling against them. At the same time, the question of the meaning of life becomes special meaning, his thinker calls the most urgent. From the very beginning, a person must “decide whether or not life is worth living”. To answer this “ ” means to solve a serious philosophical problem. According to Camus, “everything else…. secondary." The desire to live, the philosopher believes, is dictated by a person's attachment to the world, in it "there is something more: stronger than all the troubles of the world." This attachment enables a person to overcome the discord between himself and life. The feeling of this discord gives rise to a sense of the absurdity of the world. Man, being reasonable, seeks to streamline, “transform the world in accordance with his ideas of good and evil. The absurd connects man with the world.”
He believed that to live means to explore the absurdity, to rebel against it. “I extract from the absurd,” the philosopher wrote, “three consequences—my rebellion, my freedom and my passion. Through the work of the mind alone, I turn into a rule of life that which was an invitation to death - and reject suicide.
According to A. Camus, a person has a choice: either live in his time, adapting to it, or try to rise above it, but you can also make a deal with it: “live in your age and believe in the eternal.” The latter does not impress the thinker. He believes that one can hide from the absurd by immersion in the eternal, escape into the illusion of everyday life or by following some idea. In other words, you can reduce the pressure of the absurd with the help of thinking.
People who try to rise above the absurd, Camus calls the conquerors. Camus found classic examples of conquering people in the works of the French writer A. Malraux. According to Camus, the conqueror is god-like, “he knows his slavery and does not hide it”, knowledge illuminates his path to freedom. The conqueror is the ideal person for Camus, but to be such, in his opinion, is the lot of the few.
In an absurd world, creativity is also absurd. According to Camus, “creativity is the most effective school of patience and clarity. It is also a stunning testimony to the only dignity of man: stubborn rebellion against his destiny, perseverance in fruitless efforts. Creativity requires everyday efforts, self-control, an accurate assessment of the boundaries of truth, it requires measure and strength. Creativity is a kind of asceticism (i.e., detachment from the world, from its joys and blessings - S.N.). And all this is “for nothing”... But it may be important not the great work of art itself, but the test that it requires from a person.” The Creator is similar to the character of ancient Greek mythology, Sisyphus, punished by the gods for disobeying a huge stone rolling up a high mountain, which every time rolls down from the top to the foot of the mountain. Sisyphus is doomed to eternal torment. And yet the spectacle of a stone block rolling off high mountain personifies the greatness of the feat of Sisyphus, and his endless torment serves as an eternal reproach to the unjust gods.
In the essay " Rebellious man”, reflecting on his time as the time of the triumph of the absurd, Camus writes: “We live in an era of masterfully executed criminal plans.” The previous era, in his opinion, differs from the current one in that “previously, atrocity was lonely, like a cry, and now it is as universal as science. Just yesterday prosecuted, today crime has become law.” The philosopher notes: “In modern times, when evil intent dresses up in the robes of innocence, according to the terrible perversion characteristic of our era, it is innocence that is forced to justify itself.” At the same time, the boundary between false and true is blurred, and the rules are dictated by force. Under these conditions, people are divided "not into righteous and sinners, but into masters and slaves." Camus believed that our world is dominated by the spirit of nihilism. Awareness of the imperfection of the world gives rise to rebellion, the purpose of which is the transformation of life. The time of the domination of nihilism forms a rebellious person.
According to Camus, rebellion is not an unnatural state, but quite natural. In his opinion, “in order to live, a person must rebel,” but this must be done without being distracted from the initially put forward noble goals. The thinker emphasizes that in the experience of the absurd, suffering has an individual character, while in a rebellious impulse it becomes collective. Moreover, “the evil experienced by one person becomes a plague that infects everyone.”
In an imperfect world, rebellion is a means of preventing the decline of society and its ossification and decay. “I rebel, therefore we exist,” writes the philosopher. He sees rebellion here as an indispensable attribute human existence that unites the individual with other people. The result of the rebellion is a new rebellion. The oppressed, having turned into oppressors, by their behavior prepare a new revolt of those whom they turn into the oppressed.
According to Camus, "in this world there is one law - the law of force, and it is inspired by the will to power", which can be implemented through violence.
Reflecting on the possibilities of using violence in revolt, Camus was not a supporter of non-violence, since, in his opinion, "absolute non-violence passively justifies slavery and its horrors." But at the same time, he was not a supporter of excessive violence. The thinker believed that "these two concepts need self-restraint for the sake of their own fruitfulness."
Camus differs from a simple rebellion by a metaphysical rebellion, which is a "revolt of man against the whole universe." Such rebellion is metaphysical because it challenges the ultimate goals of humans and the universe. In an ordinary rebellion, a slave protests against oppression, "a metaphysical rebel rebels against the lot prepared for him as a representative of the human race." In metaphysical rebellion, the formula "I rebel, therefore we exist," characteristic of ordinary rebellion, changes to the formula "I rebel, therefore we are alone."
The logical consequence of metaphysical rebellion is revolution. At the same time, the difference between a rebellion and a revolution is that “... a rebellion kills only people, while a revolution destroys both people and principles at the same time.” According to Camus, the history of mankind has known only riots, but there have not yet been revolutions. He believed that “if a true revolution had taken place only once, then history would no longer exist. There would be blissful unity and calm death.”
The limit of the metaphysical rebellion is, according to Camus, the metaphysical revolution, during which the great inquisitors become the head of the world. The idea of the possibility of the appearance of the Grand Inquisitor was borrowed by A. Camus from F. M. Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov. The Grand Inquisitors establish the kingdom of heaven on earth. They can do what God couldn't do. The kingdom of heaven on earth as the embodiment of universal happiness is possible "not thanks to the complete freedom of choice between good and evil, but thanks to power over the world and its unification."
Developing this idea on the basis of the analysis of the representations of F. Nietzsche about the nature of freedom, A. Camus comes to the conclusion that “the absolute power of the law is not freedom, but absolute freedom from law is no greater freedom. Empowerment does not give freedom, but lack of opportunity is slavery. But anarchy is also slavery. Freedom exists only in a world where both the possible and the impossible are clearly defined.” However, "today's world, apparently, can only be a world of masters and slaves." Camus was sure that “domination is a dead end. Since the master can in no way give up dominion and become a slave, the eternal fate of masters is to live unsatisfied or be killed. The role of the master in history comes down only to reviving the slave consciousness, the only one that creates history. According to the philosopher, "what is called history is only a series of long-term efforts undertaken for the sake of gaining true freedom." In other words, “... history is the history of labor and rebellion” of people striving for freedom and justice, which, according to Camus, are connected. He believed that it was impossible to choose one without the other. The philosopher emphasizes: “If someone deprives you of bread, he thereby deprives you of freedom. But if your freedom is taken away, then be sure that your bread is also under threat, because it no longer depends on you and your struggle, but on the whim of the owner.
He considers bourgeois freedom an invention. According to Albert Camus, “freedom is the cause of the oppressed, and its traditional defenders have always been people from the oppressed people”.
Analyzing the prospects of human existence in history, Camus comes to a disappointing conclusion. In his opinion, there is nothing left for a person in history but “to live in it ... adjusting to the topic of the day, that is, either to lie or to remain silent.”
In his ethical views, Camus proceeded from the fact that the realization of freedom must be based on realistic morality, since moral nihilism is destructive.
Formulating his moral position, Albert Camus wrote in "Notebooks": "We must serve justice, because our existence is arranged unfairly, we must multiply, cultivate happiness and joy, because our world is unhappy."
The philosopher believed that wealth is not necessary to achieve happiness. He was against achieving individual happiness by bringing misfortune to others. According to Camus, "Man's greatest merit is to live in solitude and obscurity."
The aesthetic in the work of the philosopher serves as an expression of the ethical. Art for him is a means of discovering and describing the disturbing phenomena of life. It, from his point of view, can serve to improve society, as it is able to interfere during life.
Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913 in Algiers, in the family of an agricultural worker. He was less than 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. Camus's childhood was very difficult.
In 1923, Albert entered the Lyceum. He was capable student and was active in sports. However, after the young man fell ill with tuberculosis, the sport had to be abandoned.
After the lyceum, the future writer entered the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Algiers. Camus had to work hard to be able to pay his tuition. In 1934, Albert Camus married Simone Iye. The wife turned out to be a morphine drug 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 had 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 described his impressions of the trip in his first book, The Inside Out and the Face (1937). In 1936, the writer began work on his first novel, A Happy Death. This work was only published in 1971.
Camus very quickly gained a reputation as a major writer and intellectual. He not only wrote, but was also an actor, playwright, director. In 1938, his second book, Marriage, was published. 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 in the underground newspaper "Battle", which was published in Paris. In 1940, the story "The Outsider" was completed. This piercing work brought the writer world fame. This was followed by the philosophical essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" (1942). In 1945, the play "Caligula" was released. In 1947, the novel The Plague appeared.
Philosophy of Albert Camus
Camus was one of prominent representatives existentialism. His books convey the idea of the absurdity of human existence, which in any case will end in death. IN early works("Caligula", "The Stranger") the absurdity of life leads Camus to despair and immorality, reminiscent of Nietzscheanism. But in The Plague and subsequent books, the writer insists: the general tragic fate should generate in people a sense of mutual compassion and solidarity. The goal of the personality is “to create meaning among the universal nonsense”, “to overcome human lot, 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, a major philosophical essay Camus "The Rebellious Man", and in 1956 - the story "The Fall".
In 1957, Albert Camus was awarded Nobel Prize"for his enormous contribution to literature, highlighting the importance of the human conscience."
Biography
Albert Camus is a French prose writer, philosopher, essayist, publicist close to existentialism. Received common name during the life of the "Conscience of the West". Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957.
Life in Algiers
Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913 into a French-Algerian family in Algeria, on the Saint-Pol farm near the town of Mondovi. His father, Lucien Camus, an Alsatian by origin, was a wine cellar superintendent in a winery, served in the light infantry during the First World War, was mortally wounded in the Battle of the Marne in 1914 and died in the infirmary. Mother Coutrine Sante, a Spaniard by nationality, semi-deaf and illiterate, moved with Albert and his older brother Lucien to the Bellecour region (fr.) Russian. cities of Algiers, lived in poverty under the guidance of a willful grandmother. Kutrin, in order to support her family, worked first as a factory worker, then as a cleaner.
In 1918, Albert began attending elementary school, graduating with honors in 1923. Usually peers of his circle dropped out of school and went to work to help their families, but elementary school teacher Louis Germain was able to convince relatives of the need for Albert to continue his education, prepared the 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 (English) Russian" club, later claimed that sports and playing in the team influenced the formation of his attitude towards morality and duty. In 1930, Camus had tuberculosis was discovered, he was forced to interrupt his education and permanently stop playing sports (although he retained his love for football for the rest of his life), spent several months in a sanatorium. long years suffered from the consequences of an illness. Later, for health reasons, he was denied postgraduate studies, for the same 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. While studying at the university, he also read a lot, began to keep diaries, wrote essays. At this time he was influenced by A. Gide, F. M. Dostoevsky, F. Nietzsche. 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 a 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. Started work on the story "Happy Death". At the same time, Camus was involved in 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 human existence 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, accusing him of "Trotskyism."
In 1936, he created the amateur Theater of Labor (Fr. Théâtre du Travail), renamed in 1937 into the Team Theater (Fr. Théâtre de l "Equipe). He organized, in particular, the production of The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky, played Ivan Karamazov In 1936-1937 he traveled to France, Italy and the countries Central Europe. In 1937, the first collection of essays, The Inside Out and the Face, was published.
After graduating from the university, Camus headed the Algiers House of Culture for some time, in 1938 he was the editor of the Coast magazine, then the left-wing opposition newspapers Alzhe Republiken and Soir Republicen. On the pages of these publications, Camus at that time advocated a socially oriented policy and the improvement of the situation Arab population Algeria. Both newspapers were closed by military censors 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 Soir Republique was banned in January 1940, Camus and his future wife, Francine Faure, a mathematician by training, moved to Oran, where they gave private lessons. Two months later we moved from Algeria to Paris.
War period
In Paris, Albert Camus is the technical editor of the Paris-Soir newspaper. In May 1940, the story "The Outsider" was completed. In December of the same year, the opposition-minded Camus was fired from Pari-suar and, not wanting to live in an occupied country, he returned to Oran, where he taught French V private school. In February 1941, The Myth of Sisyphus was completed.
Camus soon joined the Resistance Movement and became a member of underground organization Komba, back in Paris.
In 1942, The Outsider was published, in 1943 - The Myth of Sisyphus. Since 1943, he began to publish in the underground newspaper Komba, then became its editor. From the end of 1943, he began working at the Gallimard publishing house (he collaborated with him until the end of his life). During the war he published under the pseudonym "Letters to a German Friend" (later published separate edition). In 1943, he met Sartre, participated in the productions of his plays (in particular, it was Camus who first uttered the phrase “Hell is others” from the stage).
Postwar years
After the end of the war, Camus continued to work at Komba, the publishing house published his previously written works, which soon brought the writer popularity. In 1947, his gradual break with the left movement and personally with Sartre begins. He leaves Comb, becomes an independent journalist - writes journalistic articles for various publications (later published in three collections called Topical Notes). At this time, he created the plays "State of Siege" and "The Righteous".
Collaborates with anarchists and revolutionary syndicalists and is published in their magazines and newspapers "Liberter", "Monde Liberter", "Proletarian Revolution", "Solidariad Obrera" (publication of the Spanish National Confederation of Labor) and others. Participates in the creation of the "International Relations Group".
In 1951, the anarchist magazine Liberter published "The Rebellious Man", where Camus explores the anatomy of a person's rebellion against the surrounding and internal absurdity of existence. Critics on the left, 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 greater criticism of the radical left was caused by Camus' support for the French community of Algeria after the Algerian War that began in 1954. For some time, Camus collaborated with UNESCO, but after Spain, led by Franco, became a member of this organization in 1952, he stopped his work there. Camus continues to keep a close eye on political life 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, as he believed, the crimes of the communist authorities in Eastern Europe, their unwillingness to see in the USSR-sponsored “Arab revival” the expansion not of socialism and justice, but of violence and authoritarianism.
He was increasingly fascinated by the theater, since 1954 he began to stage plays based on his own dramatizations, and was negotiating the opening of the Experimental Theater in Paris. In 1956, Camus wrote the story "The Fall", the next year a collection of short stories "Exile and 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 award, characterizing his life position, he 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, the wrong course was taken."
Death and funeral
On the afternoon of January 4, 1960, the 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 Villeneuve, a hundred kilometers from Paris. Camus died instantly. Gallimard, who was driving, died in hospital two days later, his wife and daughter survived. Among the personal belongings of the writer, a manuscript of the unfinished novel "The First Man" and an unused railway ticket were found. Albert Camus was buried in the cemetery at Lourmarin in the Luberon region in southern France.
In 2011, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera publicized the version according to which the car accident was set up by the Soviet secret services as revenge on the writer for condemning the Soviet invasion of Hungary and supporting Boris Pasternak. Among the persons aware of the planned assassination, the newspaper named the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Shepilov. Michel Onfret, 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 ashes of the writer to the Pantheon, but did not receive the consent of Albert Camus's relatives.
Philosophical views
am Camus did not consider himself a philosopher, much less an existentialist. Nevertheless, the work of representatives of this philosophical trend had a great influence on the work of Camus. At the same time, his commitment to existentialist issues is also due to a serious illness (and, therefore, a constant feeling of the proximity of death), with which he lived from childhood.
Unlike the "rebel" Sartre and the religious existentialists (English) Russian. (Jaspers) Camus believed that the only means of combating absurdity was the recognition of its givenness. In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus writes that in order to understand the reasons forcing a person to do meaningless work, one must imagine Sisyphus descending from the mountain, finding satisfaction in a clear awareness of the futility and futility of his own efforts; According to Camus, in practice, this attitude to life is realized in a permanent rebellion. Many Camus heroes come to a similar state of mind under the influence of circumstances (threat to life, death of loved ones, conflict with their own conscience, etc.), their further destinies different.
The highest embodiment of the absurd, according to Camus, are various attempts to forcibly improve society - fascism, Stalinism, etc. Being a humanist and anti-authoritarian socialist, he believed that the fight against violence and injustice "with their own methods" could only give rise to even greater violence and injustice , but, rejecting the understanding of rebellion, which does not recognize its positive aspects, in the essay “Rebellious Man” considers rebellion as a way of solidarity with other people and a philosophy of measure that determines both agreement and disagreement with existing realities; paraphrasing the Cartesian maxim as "I rebel, therefore we exist." Camus distinguishes two forms of manifestation of rebellion: the first is expressed in revolutionary activity, the second, which he prefers, in creativity. At the same time, he remained in the pessimistic belief that despite the positive role of rebellion in history, it is impossible to finally defeat evil.
Non-religious beliefs
Albert Camus is considered to be a representative of atheistic existentialism (English) Russian, 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 apparently not that they do not have hopes, but that they rely on life in another world and shy away from the pitiless majesty of this life.” At the same time, the attribution of 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.
Compositions
Prose
NovelsPlague (fr. La Peste) (1947)
The First Man (French: Le premier homme) (unfinished, published posthumously in 1994)
Tale
Outsider (fr. L'Étranger) (1942)
Fall (fr. La Chute) (1956)
Happy Death (fr. La Mort heureuse) (1938, published posthumously in 1971)
stories
Exile and kingdom (fr. L "Exil et le royaume) (1957)
Unfaithful wife (fr. La Femme adultère)
Renegade, or Confused Spirit (fr. Le Renégat ou un esprit confus)
Silence (fr. Les Muets)
Hospitality (French L "Hôte)
Jonah, or the Artist at Work (Fr. Jonas ou l'artiste au travail)
Growing stone (fr. La Pierre qui pousse)
Dramaturgy
Misunderstanding (fr. Le Malentendu) (1944)Caligula (fr. Caligula) (1945)
State of siege (fr. L'État de siège) (1948)
The Righteous (fr. Les Justes) (1949)
Requiem for a Nun (French: Requiem pour une nonne) (1956)
Demons (fr. Les Possedes) (1959)
Essay
Revolt in Asturias (fr. Révolte dans les Asturies) (1936)Inside and face (fr. L'Envers et l'Endroit) (1937)
Wind in Djémila (fr. Le vent à Djémila) (1938)
Marriage feast (fr. Noces) (1939)
The myth of Sisyphus (fr. Le Mythe de Sisyphe) (1942)
Rebellious Man (French L'Homme révolté) (1951)
Summer (fr. L "Été) (1954)
Return to Tipasa (fr. Retour à Tipaza) (1954)
Reflections on the death penalty (fr. Réflexions sur la peine capitale) (1957), together with Arthur Koestler, Reflections on the guillotine (fr. Réflexions sur la Guillotine)
Swedish speeches (fr. Discours de Suède) (1958)
Other
Autobiographies and diariesTopical notes 1944-1948 (fr. Actuelles I, Chroniques 1944-1948) (1950)
Topical notes 1948-1953 (fr. Actuelles II, Chroniques 1948-1953) (1953)
Topical notes 1939-1958 (fr. Chroniques algériennes, Actuelles III, 1939-1958) (1958)
Diaries, May 1935 - February 1942 (fr. Carnets I, mai 1935 - février 1942) (published posthumously in 1962)
Diaries, January 1942 - March 1951 (fr. Carnets II, janvier 1942 - mars 1951) (published posthumously in 1964)
Diaries, March 1951 - December 1959 (fr. Carnets III, mars 1951 - décembre 1959) (published posthumously in 1989)
Travel Diary (fr. Journaux de voyage) (1946, 1949, published posthumously in 1978)
Correspondence
Correspondance Albert Camus and Jean Grenier (1932-1960) (posthumously published 1981)
Correspondance Albert Camus, René Char, 1949-1959 (published posthumously in 2007)
Albert Camus, Maria Casares. Correspondence inédite (1944-1959). Avant-propos de Catherine Camus. Gallimard, 2017.
Editions in Russian
Camus A. Selected: Collection / Comp. and foreword. S. Velikovsky. - M.: Raduga, 1988. - 464 p. ISBN 5-05-002281-9 (Masters of Modern Prose)Camus A. Creativity and freedom. Articles, essays, notebooks / Per. from French - M.: Raduga, 1990. - 608 p.
Camus A. A rebellious person. Philosophy. Policy. Art / Per. from French - M.: Politizdat, 1990. - 416 p., 200,000 copies.
Camus A. Actuelles / Translated from French. S. S. Avanesova //Intentionality and textuality: philosophical thought France of the 20th century. - Tomsk, 1998. - S. 194-202.
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.
Childhood
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 for the fate of the future writer tragic consequences. During the Battle of the Marne, Camus' father died.
Left without a breadwinner, the family was on the verge of poverty. This period is reflected in early work 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.
Youth
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.
Extremely active person was Albert Camus. 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, even played in 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 serious illness. But even in this difficult period, a rather active social and creative activity hosted by Albert Camus.
"Plague"
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, one's own famous work written by Albert Camus. The Plague is a novel that was published in 1947. In it, the author reflected the events in Paris, occupied German troops, in a complex symbolic form. Albert Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for this novel. The wording is "For important role literary works that confront people with the problems of the present 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 prevailed in the early 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."
outlook
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 works of Camus there is a pessimistic certainty that evil cannot be defeated completely. Violence breeds more violence. And a rebellion against him can’t lead to anything good at all. It is this position of the author that can be felt while reading the novel "The Plague".
"Outsider"
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. His 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.
"A fall"
This story was published three years before the death of the writer. The works of Albert Camus, as a rule, refer to philosophical genre. Fall is no exception. In the story, the author creates a portrait of a man, which 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 others works of art Albert Camus, in the center of the plot of the story "The Fall" is a person of an unusual psychological warehouse, which allows the author to reveal in a new way the eternal problems of being.
After the war
In the late forties, Camus became a freelance journalist. Public activities in any political organizations, he forever stopped. 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 direction 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 the radical left. In his articles, he repeatedly raised the topic of violence and authoritarianism of the Soviet regime.
Death
In 1960, the writer died tragically. His life was cut short on the road from Provence to Paris. As a result 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.
On January 4, 1960, terrible news shocked Paris. The car in which he was driving famous writer Albert Camus with the family of his friend Michel Gallimard, returning from Provence, flew off the road and crashed into a plane tree near the town of Villeneuve, a hundred kilometers from Paris. Camus died instantly. Gallimard, who was driving, died in hospital two days later, his wife and daughter survived. The famous writer, the youngest Nobel Prize winner in 1957, died on the spot, he was only 46 years old.
The Conscience of the West - Albert Camus
Albert Camus is a French writer, journalist, essayist, philosopher, member of the French Resistance movement. One of the key figures in world literature. He, along with Sartre, stood at the origins of existentialism. But later he moved away from it, becoming the continuer of the tradition of philosophical prose. Camus is one of the most ardent humanists in the history of literature. He was called "the conscience of the West." His ethics forbids murder, even if it is committed in the name of a great idea, Camus rejects those who build Prometheans out of themselves and are ready to sacrifice others for the sake of building a brighter future.
After the accident, rumors spread around Paris that it was not just an accident, but a contract killing. For my short life Camus made many enemies. He led the resistance movement against colonialism. But he was against the terror unleashed in his homeland against the colonialists. He was tolerated neither by the right-wing French, who defended the colonial rule of France in Algeria, nor by the terrorists who wanted to destroy the colonialists. He wanted to reconcile the irreconcilable.
Camus was born in Algiers on November 7, 1913 in poor family agricultural workers. My father was called to the front during the First World War, and two weeks later he was killed. An illiterate, semi-deaf mother moved with her children to a poor area.
In 1923, her son graduated from elementary school and had to go to work to help his mother feed the family. But the teacher persuaded the mother to send the boy to the Lyceum. The teacher said that someday her son would bring fame to the family. “He has an undoubted talent, you will be proud of him,” he repeated, and the mother agreed to send her son to the lyceum, where he proved himself with better side. Here his penchant for football was revealed, he served big hopes like an athlete.
After the Lyceum, Albert entered the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Algiers. Played soccer. He was destined for a bright sports future. But at the age of 17, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and had to say goodbye to football. The future was hazy, but it belonged only to him. “I was somewhere halfway between the sun and poverty. Poverty prevented me from believing that all was well in history. And the sun taught me that history isn't everything. Change life - yes, but not the world in which I will create.
Studying had to be paid for, and Albert did not shun any work: a private teacher, a seller of spare parts, an assistant at the meteorological institute. He was popular with women. But Simone - his first wife - turned out to be a morphine addict. The marriage broke up.
In 1935, Camus became interested in Marxism and joined the Algerian Communist Party. He dreamed of the liberation of the working man. However, he quickly discovered that the policy of the Communist Party was opportunistic, tied to Moscow. In 1937 he left the party. Together with her theatrical troupe "Theater of Labor", which was associated with communist cells, Camus traveled all over Algeria. He was both a director and an actor. Wrote for the theatre. I planned to study further. But the aggravated tuberculosis did not allow this. But it didn't stop him from writing. Camus became a journalist for several newspapers. The main theme is the terrible situation of the indigenous population of Algeria. “I did not study freedom according to Marx,” he writes in his notebooks- I was taught it by poverty.
One after another, his books "Inside and Face", "Marriage", the play "Caligula" began to be published.
In the spring of 1940 Camus moved to France. He headed the Paris Soir newspaper. He married his classmate Francine Faure. He needed a quiet home and care so much. loving woman. Quiet family happiness did not last long. On June 25, 1940, France capitulated. Camus was fired as editor. Went to evacuate. But two years later he returned to Paris and was actively involved in the activities of the French resistance. He became a member of the underground organization "Komba" and met the actress Maria Casarez, for whom he developed a deep and passionate love. It was dangerous and hard times. He wrote, and before his eyes Paris was defeated by the brown plague.
A cocktail of love and risk is what Camus' life is like at this time. The love idyll with Marie lasted a year. And in 1944, Francine returned to Paris to her husband. Marie was shocked, it turns out that her lover is married. She gave Camus a week to think before he made his final choice between her and Francine. It was unbearable. Albert was torn between love and duty. In essence, he married Francine not for love, but because of his illness. He succumbed to weakness. But he was grateful to her for her care and warmth. For being there for her difficult moments life. Now his wife needed his protection. She was pregnant. He couldn't leave her. Mary made the decision. Having learned about the twins, she herself left Albert.
Camus suffered greatly. He wrote long letters to her. Inside him, not for life, but for death, love and duty fought. This personal drama unfolded against the backdrop of events in Paris. At the end of the war, it was time for reckoning on those who supported the Nazis. A wave of lynching and reprisals began. Camus was categorically against terror and revenge, he was convinced that one should not take the side of the guillotine. The hunt for witches, for those who collaborated with the Nazis, knocked him out of a creative rut. Every article about him in the newspapers is indignation: "Who are you with, mister writer?"
And he is the only French writer who opposed the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Camus was convinced that the bombing was not the final victory, it was the beginning of a new, more exhausting war. And she needs to be stopped.
In 1948, three years after the breakup, Albert once saw Marie on the street. And it all started all over again. They couldn't do anything about it. It was a union made in heaven. Happiness, delightful and all-consuming, covered them, and nothing more could separate them. Now he is a famous writer. He is no longer perceived as a lover famous actress. He once said: "Not to be loved is just a failure, not to love is a misfortune." He was lucky to experience both at the same time. And yet he was happy because he loved.
He didn't even think about leaving Francine. But his wife annoyed him. Creativity saved him from family troubles and a double life. “Free is he who can not lie,” wrote Camus. In his work, he was extremely honest with the reader and himself.
At this time, he wrote his famous work "The Rebellious Man" - an essay on rebellion and man. In it, Camus explored the anatomy of rebellion and came to shocking conclusions. Rebellion against the absurd is natural, normal. But revolution is violence leading to tyranny. It is aimed at suppressing the rebellion of man against the absurd. So the revolution is unacceptable. So Camus debunked the Marxist idea. And completely diverged from the existentialists. He became a humanist.“I only hate executioners,” he wrote. - The rest of the people are different. They act mostly out of ignorance. They do not know what they are doing, so they most often do evil. But they are not executioners.” It was an attempt to enlighten others.
"The Rebellious Man" quarreled Camus with Sartre, although before that they had been inseparable for 10 years. Thanks to this friendship, the work of Camus is still mistakenly attributed to the philosophy of existentialism. “I have too few points of contact with the fashionable doctrine of existentialism, the conclusions of which are false” Camus wrote.
Back in 1945, intoxicated with victory, he and Sartre argued bitterly about whether it was possible to sacrifice one's inner feeling for the common good. Sartre stated: "It's impossible to make a revolution without getting your hands dirty." Camus believed that "in the choice of what can dishonor you, there is no accident". In The Rebellious Man, Camus encroached on the sacred. He criticized the ideology of Marxism.
He analyzes in this work what the rebellion leads to. Yes, it can lead to liberation. But side effect is that there are Man-gods, Prometheus, who then drive people into concentration camps. The scandal was unimaginable. Camus was scolded by both left and right. A furious persecution of the writer began. L'Humanité declared Camus a "warmonger". Sartre published the play The Devil and the Lord God, which ended with the words: “The kingdom of man begins, and I will be an executioner and a butcher in it”. Sartre finally went over to the side of the executioner. That is, he directly called himself the one whom Camus hated. Further relations were impossible.
In the fall of 1957, Albert Camus was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, the wording was: "for his enormous contribution to literature, highlighting the importance of human conscience." It was like a bolt from the blue. Camus was confused. His "Rebel Man" is not scolded except by the lazy, he is hounded and ridiculed. And here prestigious award. Camus is confused.
Nominated Jean-Paul Sartre, Boris Pasternak, Samuel Beckett, André Malraux. “Malraux will receive the prize,” Camus repeats like a spell. But he had to go to Stockholm - the youngest of the nominees. He considered himself unworthy of such recognition. At some point, I even wanted to refuse the prize, send the Nobel speech by mail. Friends convinced him to read it personally.
« Every generation is convinced that its mission is to remake the world. Mine already knows that he can't change this world. But his task is even greater. It is to keep this world from perishing. I am too strongly attached to the galley of our time not to row with others, even if I am sure that the galley stinks of herring, and there are too many overseers in it, and the wrong course is taken.". The performance was met with applause.
A student from Algeria asked the writer: “You have written so many books, but you have done nothing for your home country? Algiers will be free? Camus replied: “I stand for justice. But I am against terror and, if I happen to be, I will defend not Algeria, but my mother.”
On the streets of it hometown, indeed, shots were fired and terrorist attacks took place, the victims of which were innocent people, his mother could also become.
Except little house in Provence, the first own housing, the Camus Prize did not bring any other joy. As soon as it became known that he had won a prestigious award, the newspapers were full of mocking headlines. “What are such outstanding ideas? His creations lack depth and imagination. The Nobel Committee encourages exhausted talent!” The bullying began. “Look who was awarded the Nobel Prize? His own peace and suffering of his mother is dearer to him whole country". The Algerian rebels seethed with indignation. "He betrayed the interests of his native people." The Soviet press reacted most negatively. “It is clear,” Pravda wrote, “that he received the award for political reasons for attacks on the USSR. But once he was a member of the Communist Party.”
It is not surprising that after the death of Camus, many began to say that the KGB agents had set up the accident.
Or maybe Camus decided to take his own life? Family and love drama, break with Sartre, persecution in the press. “There is always something in a person that rejects love, that part of his being that wants to die. My whole life is a story of delayed suicide." , he wrote in The Myth of Sisyphus. But people who knew him well said that he was far from suicidal and would not risk the lives of close friends who were sitting in the same car with him.
What happened on the road from Provence to Paris in 1960? Most likely an accident. “My most cherished desire is a quiet death that would not make people dear to me worry too much,” he wrote shortly before his death. But there was no quiet death. Manuscript found in writer's travel bag autobiographical novel"First man". The author's remark "The book must be unfinished" was preserved in the outlines. His latest book remained unfinished, like his family life and love, like all life, cut short so suddenly. But, apparently, his soul was ready for this.
“If the soul exists, it would be wrong to think that it is given to us already created. It is created on earth, throughout life. Life itself is nothing but these long and painful births. When the creation of the soul, which man owes to himself and to suffering, is completed, death comes. (A. Camus. The myth of Sisyphus).
