22 Albert Camus Facts: A Philosopher, Author, And Journalist!

Albert Camus, a major figure in postmodernist philosophy, maintained that existence is incomprehensible and that, even if there is significance, we have yet to discover it.

Albert Camus was a French philosopher, author, and journalist who received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Camus won the prize in 1957 for his significant literary work, highlighting the difficulties of the human conscience in modern time with straightforward sincerity. Albert Camus was born in the Algerian village of Mondovi, now known as Dréan, in 1913 to French parents. However, he was recognized as a French citizen.

Camus never got to know his father, Lucien, as his father died in the Battle of the Marne in 1914 during the First World War. His mother, Catherine Helene Sintes-Camus, was deaf and uneducated, and his family was in dire straits. Camus, though Algerian by birth, was about 5.9 ft (1.8 m) tall.

After living in Algeria for the first half of his life, Camus moved to France. Much to his displeasure, he is frequently associated with existentialism, even though he frequently rejected it in many of his writings. Camus is also associated with absurdism, a discipline of philosophy that analyses the absurdity of existence. The concept of the absurd, as per Camus, is that which has no sense. Therefore, a person's existence is nonsensical since there is no external explanation for it. While this thought has certain negative implications, Camus believed that life was worth enduring, whether that was ludicrous or not.

Some of his writing that covered this theme notably include the essays 'Le Mythe De Sisyphe' and 'The Myth Of Sisyphus'.

The Life Journey Of Albert Camus

Few intellectuals have succeeded in making philosophy appear 'cool'. However, among this uncommon group, Albert Camus is perhaps the most prominent.

Albert Camus exemplified non-metropolitan French writing. His origins in French Algeria, as well as his experiences there in the '30s, had a strong effect on his thinking and work. He was the son of semi-proletarian parentage, and he moved to France after he turned 25 years old. Early on, Camus connected to intellectual groups with significant revolutionary inclinations, and had a profound curiosity in philosophy. Camus embraced the French resistance movement during the occupation and became a journalist for the publication 'Combat' after its independence.

It's not unusual that his parents influenced his work, but it's worth noting the specifics of Camus' childhood. Camus was awarded a scholarship to the University of Algiers for his brilliant mind. He earned the comparable of a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Algiers, and 'Christian Metaphysics And Neoplatonism' was his thesis on Plotinus. In 1930, he was stricken with tuberculosis, which forced him to stop playing football and study part-time. So, Camus decided to move to the French Alps to recover. In 1934, Camus married Simone Hié. He later married Francine Faure, a mathematician and pianist, in 1940. Camus joined a couple of communist parties eventually, and continued to work as an author, journalist, and political activist.

However, his journalistic activity had mostly been a response to the needs of the times. In 1947, Camus withdrew from political journalism. In addition to producing fiction and essays, he was highly involved in theater as both a producer and writer. Camus also came to have a complicated with Jean-Paul Sartre, and it was through Sartre that he met André Breton, a French writer and poet.

Camus' feud with Jean-Paul Sartre, a fellow existentialist from occupied France, was well known. But how it played out was interesting as well. Their intellectual competition affected debates in France and throughout the world. The public fight between Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre in the summer of 1952 warned of a political crisis. Camus wrote the play 'The Just Assassins', or 'Les Justes', which was based on the true story of a group of Russian Socialist-Revolutionaries. He also wrote short stories.

The Academic Career Of Albert Camus

Camus expanded his interests during the '30s. He was a significant figure among the emerging left intelligentsia of Algiers, turning to traditional French literature and contemporary writers such as André Gide, Henry de Montherlant, and André Malraux.

He was briefly part of the Algerian Communist Party from 1934–35. In fact, during his university career, he composed, produced, adapted, and played for the Théâtre du Travail (Workers' Theater, subsequently renamed the Théâtre de l'Équipe), a company dedicated to bringing great plays to working-class spectators. Until his death, he had a strong affinity for the theater. Although 'Le Malentendu', 'Cross Purpose', and 'Caligula', were initially presented in 1944 and 1945, respectively, they remain classics in the Theater of the Absurd. Camus' plays are the least regarded element of his creative work.

Camus worked as a journalist at Alger-Républicain in various positions including comprising author, subeditor, political journalist, and book critic for two years before World War II. Camus had established himself as a significant literary personality by this time. His first novel, 'L'Étranger', or 'The Stranger', in the United States, also known as 'The Outsider' in the United Kingdom, is a fantastic novel about twentieth-century alienation. It tells the story of an 'outsider', Mersault, who was sentenced to death, not for shooting an Arab, but for never saying more than he genuinely feels and refusing to strictly adhere to society’s expectations. It was written before the war and printed in 1942.

That same year, Camus published 'Le Mythe De Sisyphe' or 'The Myth Of Sisyphus', a famous philosophical essay. He studied modern nihilism and the absurd with significant compassion. Camus was already searching for a way out of nihilism when he wrote his second novel, 'La Peste' (1947). Camus had now transitioned from his first foundational absurdity principle to his second key concept of ethical and metaphysical rebellion.

In a second major article, 'L'Homme Révolté' or 'The Rebel' (1951), he juxtaposed this latter ideal against the politico-historical revolution, which sparked fierce debate among Marxist commentators and near-Marxist theorists, like Jean-Paul Sartre. 'A Happy Death' was released eleven years following Camus' death and follows the narrative of Patrice Mersault, who is identical to Meursault in 'The Stranger'; both are French Algerian clerks who murder another man. In 'The Stranger', Camus depicts how life is so absurd, and that the only thing that is certain is death. Camus' other well-known books are 'La Chute' or 'The Fall', published in 1956, and 'L'Exil Et Le Royaume' or 'Exile And The Kingdom', published in 1957.

Political Positions

Camus was politically engaged, and was a member of the left, which fought authoritarianism in the Soviet Union. Camus was also an anarcho-syndicalist as well as a moralist. Camus' political awakening was influenced by his uncle Acault, who exposed him to anarchist views when he was a young boy.

Camus was persuaded to join the Algerian Communist Party by his philosophy instructor, Jean Grenier, a well-known writer.

Camus was expelled from the Communist Party because he never surrendered to communist ideology. His novel 'The Rebel' is thought to have played a role in several young Frenchmen rejecting Marxism at the time. It’s no wonder that he would grow up to be an anarchist, seeing all power institutions as fundamentally corrupt and self-serving. Camus' anarchism is a natural extension of his existentialist, or individualist, ideology. According to Camus, individual identity, free will, and rebellion were among humanity's most exemplary characteristics, and governments and societies simply hampered the endeavors that these characteristics created.

Endowment To Society By Albert Camus

Camus decided to publish a series of essays under 'L'envers Et L'endroit' ('Betwixt And Between' or 'The Wrong Side And The Right Side'). He further authored an essential series of papers assessing socioeconomic circumstances among the Muslims of the Kabylie region, and reviewed some of Jean-Paul Sartre's early literary works.

Many of the injustices that contributed to the commencement of the Algerian War in 1954 were highlighted in these essays, which were reproduced in the reduced form of 'Actuelles III' (1958). Camus took a humanitarian stance rather than an intellectual one, believing that France had a potential amount of positive influence in French Algeria, while not neglecting colonial abuses.

Camus' presentation of the 'Idea Of The Absurd' was his first significant contribution to philosophy. He stated that it is the outcome of a person's longing for clarity and significance in a world and circumstance that does not provide either. Camus had dedicated most of his time to human rights by the '50s. When the United Nations recognized Spain as a member of the union during General Franco's authority in 1952, he stepped down from UNESCO. He began writing literary pieces for L'Express from 1955-1956.

At the age of 44 years old, Camus received the Nobel Prize in Literature and was the second-youngest recipient to have the honor. He is second to Rudyard Kipling, who received the same prize at the age of 42. Camus is associated with numerous forms of philosophy. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957 for his contribution to French and international literature. He died in a tragic car accident roughly three years later. Camus was a voice appealing to the ideas of justice and human dignity in the face of overwhelming intellectual and moral befuddlement that succeeded the Second World War.

Even though his career ended prematurely, he is still considered one of the most prominent authors of the last century for both the brilliance of his fiction and the profundity and insight of his thought. It was noted that Camus died with an unused train ticket in his pocket. We can safely say Camus died much before his time, yet he left a lasting impression in the world.