Camus works. Albert Camus, short biography

Albert Camus

(1913 - 1960)

French writer and thinker, laureate Nobel Prize(1957), one of the brightest representatives 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 traditions modernist literature. Depicting a person in a "world without God", Camus consistently considered the positions of "tragic humanism". Except fiction, creative legacy The author's work 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».

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 - the period creative development: the novel The Plague (1947) appears, which brought the author world fame, plays "State of Siege" (1948), "Righteous" (1950), essay "Rebel Man" (1951), story "Fall" (1956), milestone collection "Exile and Kingdom" (1957), essay "Timely Reflections" (1950-1958), etc. Last years lives were marked by a creative slump.

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. One of critical factors the formation of his existentialist worldview was early experience discovery of the proximity of death (as early as student years 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 post-war years the writer went on a break with former colleagues and comrades, because he had no illusions about the "communist paradise" in former USSR and wished to reconsider his relationship with "left" existentialism.

While still a novice writer, A. Camus made a plan for the future creative way, which was supposed 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.

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.

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. Father, an Alsatian by origin, 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.

concern 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 entered underground organization Resistance "Komba"; edited her illegal newspaper of the same name. In 1947, he left his job at Komba and wrote journalistic articles for the press, which were subsequently collected in three books under common name Topical Notes (Actuelles, 1950, 1953, 1958).

Books (7)

A fall

Be that as it may, but 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 they didn’t congratulate me on my birthday, they forgot this significant date; 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 narrowness moral standards modern bourgeois culture.

The story is written in an unusual style - short phrases in the past time. 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 penalty.

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.

Reflections on the guillotine

The topic of the death penalty, its legitimacy or illegality as a measure of punishing a person for a crime, is one of the most socially significant legal and ethical problems for the states of the modern world.

Famous English writer and publicist Arthur Koestler and French philosopher and writer Albert Camus were perhaps the first European intellectuals who, with all the acuteness and relevance, posed the problem of the legitimacy of this type of punishment to society.

(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”open the second period of creativity, which lasted until the end of 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. His novel Happy Death and Notebooks were published posthumously.

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 like a character ancient Greek mythology Sisyphus, punished by the gods for disobedience by rolling a huge stone 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 - First Man