Camus, Albert

Click a letter for the index

Or search the encyclopaedia:

 

 

Go

 

Algerian-born French writer. His works, such as the novels L'Etranger/The Outsider (1942) and La Peste/The Plague (1948), owe much to existentialism in their emphasis on the absurdity and arbitrariness of life. Other works include Le Mythe de Sisyphe/The Myth of Sisyphus (1943) and L'Homme révolté/The Rebel (1951). Camus's criticism of communism in the latter book led to a protracted quarrel with the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957.

The plays Le Malentendu/Cross Purpose and Caligula (both 1944), and the novel L'Etranger (‘the study of an absurd man in an absurd world’) explore various aspects of ‘the Absurd’, while Le Mythe de Sisyphe is a philosophical treatment of the same concept. With Lettres à un ami allemand/Letters to a German Friend (1945), La Peste, the play L'Etat de siège/State of Siege (1948), and L'Homme révolté, Camus moved away from metaphysical alienation and began to explore the problem of suffering in its more historical manifestations, and the concept of revolt.

The flag uses the pan-African colours in a striking design. Effective date: 10 June 1991. >>