Albert Camus and the Literature of Revolt – John Cruickshank

Description

“Readers and critics alike are often quick to find some label by means of which they can characterize or summarize and original writer and thereby render him less disturbing. Once the formula has been found the actual work itself can be largely ignored. Camus was subjected to such a labelling process at an early stage and soon came to be regarded generally as a ‘philosopher of the absurd’. In a brief preliminary note to Le Mythe de Sisyphe, however, he states clearly that he is not elaborating a ‘philosophie absurde’ but describing the ‘sensibilite absurde’. He adds that his attitude towards the absurd is a provisional one. Nevertheless, the majority of of readers have taken no notice of these remarks. They have continued to equate the various – and sometimes conflicting – ideas of L’Estranger and Caligula or Le Malentendu which Camus’ own private beliefs. The result is that he is still most widely known as the author of L’Estranger and Le Mythe de Sisyphe. He continues to de described as a writer or philosopher of the absurd. The complexities of his own attitudes to this question, together with his development since 1942, are too often ignored. ”

John Cruickshank, Albert Camus and the Literature of Revolt, OUP (1959)