Looking back at the legacy of Albert Camus, 60 years after his death

Albert Camus’ death, sixty years ago, stunned France. The French literary icon was just 46 years old when he died in a car crash southeast of Paris on January 4, 1960.

The author of “The Stranger” was also a playwright, a journalist and a philosopher. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature at the age of 43.

Camus’s work often touched on themes of justice, freedom and revolt. He wielded his pen against the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, the Franco dictatorship in Spain, the horror of Soviet gulags, and the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany.

Algeria, where he was born, was often a central part of his writing, though his lack of a clear stance in favour of the country’s independence was heavily criticised.

FRANCE 24’s Axelle Simon and Wassim Cornet look back at the author’s legacy.

Issued on: 04/01/2020 - 20:11

The Stranger (1967) by Albert Camus : Albert Camus; Stuart Gilbert : https://archive.org/details/AlbertCamusTheStranger1967 

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Albert Camus

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Federal Bureau of Investigation

https://archive.org/details/AlbertCamusTheMythOfSisyphus/page/n15

Pedagogical Suicide, Philosophy of Nihilism, Absurdity and Existentialism in Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus and Its Impact on Post-Independence Odia Literature

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Santosh Kumar Nayak

The anarchism of Albert Camus, 

https://www.bibotu.com/books/2013b/Camus,%20Albert%20-%20The%20Rebel%20%281951%29.pdf

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.460349/page/n2

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.458586/page/n3

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.125150/page/n5

Albert Camus, Arthur Goldhammer, Alice Kaplan Algerian Chronicles

More than fifty years after Algerian independence, Albert Camus "Algerian Chronicles" appears here in English for the first time. Published in France in 1958, the same year the Algerian War brought about the collapse of the Fourth French Republic, it is one of Camus most political works an exploration of his commitments to Algeria. Dismissed or disdained at publication, today "Algerian Chronicles, " with its prescient analysis of the dead end of terrorism, enjoys a new life in Arthur Goldhammer s elegant translation.

Believe me when I tell you that Algeria is where I hurt at this moment, Camus, who was the most visible symbol of France s troubled relationship with Algeria, writes, as others feel pain in their lungs. Gathered here are Camus strongest statements on Algeria from the 1930s through the 1950s, revised and supplemented by the author for publication in book form.

In her introduction, Alice Kaplan illuminates the dilemma faced by Camus: he was committed to the defense of those who suffered colonial injustices, yet was unable to support Algerian national sovereignty apart from France. An appendix of lesser-known texts that did not appear in the French edition complements the picture of a moralist who posed questions about violence and counter-violence, national identity, terrorism, and justice that continue to illuminate our contemporary world."

The Rebel Hero: Albert Camus and the Search for Meaning Amidst the Absurd By Meghan E. Von Hassel 2017, VOL. 9 NO. 04