Albert%20Camus%201913-1960%20

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Albert Camus1913-1960Always go too far,
because that's where you'll find the truth."
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Born in Mondovi, Algeria in 1913
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Algeria Colonized

• Like Nigeria, Algeria was colonized (by France)
• Natives (Arabs) were treated as second class
  citizens
• Suffered from Imperialism

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Childhood

• Mother was Spanish, ½ deaf
• Father was French
• Father died in World War I (Camus was 2)
• Family lived in poverty
• Mother depressed, didnt care about her children
  (Camus had a brother).

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Childhood Cont.

• Also, (as if things werent bad enough), he lived
  with
• Grandmother (dying of liver cancer)
• Uncle (paralyzed)
• Themes of home life misery and misfortune

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Education
Went to school to escape depressing home life.
He was very intelligent! Was a talented soccer
player until he was diagnosed with tuberculosis.
(1930)
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The world is falling apart!

• Camus life was full of sadness, despair and
  misery. The world struggled with World War II
  (Pearl Harbor was bombed, France was taken over
  by Hitler, the Jews were being put in
  concentration camps)
• Something had to change!

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1934-36

• Joined French communist party instead of Marxist
• Marxist Communism classless, stateless, and
  oppression-free society where decisions on what
  to produce and what policies to pursue are made
  directly and democratically.

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Socialism was simply the first step to communism.

• Socialism-was, ideally, where everyone would
  share the benefits of industrialization
• -more workers than bosses (majority rules)

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The problem?

• -Socialism is not a political system, it's a way
  of distributing goods and services.
• -On a large scale both fail human perversity to
  blame. (never play fair)

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Like this
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Help to found the Algerian Communist Party (PCA)
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1935

• 1939-Works for various socialist papers
• WWII in first stages
• No army- TB
• AT first hes a pacifist

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Pacifist untilWehrmacht

• Wehrmacht- special armed forces of Germany during
  WWII.
• Resistance group!
• THIS IS WHERE AND WHEN HE WROTE

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• Joins French Resistance cell Combat
• Uses moniker- Beauchard
• Meets Jean-Paul Sartre (SAR-truh) here.
• Hes the father of your favorite philosophical
  movement..

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Exi--
stential--
--ism!
FRENCH EXISTENTIALISM!!!!
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Became part of Sartres group..

• Tours America giving lectures on French
  Existentialism.
• TB returns in 1949- secluded for 2 years and
  writes The Rebel
• -analyzes rebellion/revolution
• -rejects communism

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• This destroyed his friendship with Sartre and
  even lost him some fans.
• Became an Absurdistwhich is like an extreme form
  of existentialism--

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It starts with conflict ..

• fundamental conflict between what we want from
  the universe (whether it be meaning, order, or
  reasons)
• ---- and what we find in the universe (formless
  chaos).
• We will never find in life itself the meaning
  that we want to find.

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Either

• A. Place hopes in a higher power, or destiny,
  fate, way of thinking.
• or
• B. Conclude that life is meaningless.
• Dont get all depressive yet theres more.

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Absurd

• Camus is interested in pursuing a third
  possibility that we can accept and live in a
  world devoid of meaning or purpose.
• And even find enjoyment in the absurdities
  therein

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Absurd Cont.

• The absurdresides neither in man nor in the
  world if you consider each separately.
• But since man's dominant characteristic is
  "being-in-the-world," the absurd is, in the end,
  an inseparable part of the human condition.

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• Thus, the absurd is not, to begin with, the
  object of a mere idea it is revealed to us in a
  doleful (grief causing) illumination.
• "Getting up, drive to work, four hours of work,
  meal, sleep, and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
  Thursday, Friday, Saturday, in the same
  routine," and then, suddenly, "the seeing
  collapses," and we find ourselves in a state of
  hopeless lucidity (ability to see the truth)
• And luckily.. The truth can be humorous.

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And Camus did say--

• Prefer truth to everything.

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LETS PLAY A GAME!

• After you see a cartoon, exclaim WHY, THATS
  ABSURD!
• Then well explain why together.
• You will soon be a master of sensing the
  absurdist flavor

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WHY

• THATS ABSURD!!

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WHY

• THATS ABSURD!!

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WHY

• THATS ABSURD!!

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WHY

• THATS ABSURD!!

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Main Thought

• Life is absurd and death renders it
  meaningless-for the individual
• But, mankind and its societies are larger than
  one person

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Camus and The Stranger

• Written in 1938
• Published in 1942
• Instant success!

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Question?

• What behavior/response should someone show
  after/during the following situations?
• The death of a parent
• The birth of a baby
• The killing of a president
• Fire killing 9 children
• A prison inmate murdered by another inmate

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Question again?

• How does society treat those who dont respond
  the way society thinks they should?

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The Stranger Summary

• The main character (Meursault) seems to have a
  good life (job, girlfriend). However, after
  killing an Arab, he is tried and found guilty not
  because of the killing, but because of how he
  reacts. (no guilt, no belief in God). He didnt
  even feel sad or show grief at his mothers
  funeral!

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Structure

• Two parts
• Part I Chapters 1-6
• Part II Chapters 1-5
• Structured around 3 deaths, starting with the
  protagonists mother

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The Stranger Main Characters

• Meursault protagonist/narrator
• Employer Mersaults boss
• Celeste Meursaults friend, owner of restaurant
• Raymond Meursaults friend/neighbor, abuses his
  girlfriend
• Marie Cardona has an affair with Meursault

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Themes and Motifs

• Themes
• Irrationality of the universe
• Meaninglessness of life
• Importance of physical world
• Motifs
• Death/decay
• Watching/observing