Albert Camus: a french writer

Abstract

In continuity to an open and sincere dialogue with Cultural Studies, immediately, to orient our analytical literary perception of the Camusean novel, – in particular, L’étranger and La peste, incorporated to the novel genre, we cannot classify them as Colonial and Post Colonial literature. Neither of them represent the Colonizer and/or Colonial speech, although part of the French literary canon, they are cosmopolitan. Though L’étranger and La peste have their plot limited to Alger – Oran cities, both of them in Algerian Republic territory, the theme developed in these novels is unquestionably universal. This theme unfolds in two sub themes: Self versus Other and Death versus Survival. The Other is the unfamiliar, however part of the human gender. The “otherness” lived unconditionally, leads inevitably to identity loss – to death. Both works are not only similar but are, in fact, realistic-existentialist, works that go on to express the everlasting tragic Humanism, in a century in which Humanism was questioned and tragedy doesn’t fi nd the social conditions that validate its survival – the dialogue between Gods and Aristocrats. Keywords: Cultural studies. Novel. Colonial literature. Post Colonial literature. Colonial discourse. Self versus Other.