1. DESERT AS ALBERT CAMUS' ABSURD LANDSCAPE.
- Author
-
Poļanskis, Sergejs
- Subjects
DESERTS in literature ,ABSURD (Philosophy) ,LANDSCAPES in literature - Abstract
The article analyses the presence of the desert in Camusí writing. Albert Camus was born in 1913 in Mondovi, Algeria and passed his early years on the North African cost of the Mediterranean sea. Like his characters Camus felt the hostile emptiness of the desert, a place where ëman feels an alien, a strangerí (Camus ëThe Myth of Sisyphusí) and this landscape seemed perfectly fit for ëthe feeling of absurdityí (ibid.) and therefore was used in the absurd drama as a vision of life of man trapped in a hostile universe, without any chance of happiness and hope for the future. Most of researchers agree that the desert is so often mentioned in Camusí texts because it was one of the most well known landscapes to the writer since his childhood. At the same time the desert evolves together with the authorís reflection about the absurd. The literary heritage of Camus is strongly marked by two factors: colonialism and his country of birth ñ Algeria. But this context does not restrict the importance of his texts. Camusí heroes tend to understand the absurd of their actions thus to realize their existence. Only the revolt allows them to gain the freedom of conscience. The desert seems to be the ideal place where a human being meets what Martin Esslin calls the feeling of the absurd: the fear and loneliness in an alien and hostile universe (Esslin ëAbsurd Dramaí). In the following study we demonstrate the use of the concept ëdesertí in Camusí writing, beginning with the early ëNuptials in Tipasaí (1938) where he called the whole chapter ëThe Desertí, and ending with the incomplete ëThe First Maní published only in 1995. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2013