| Literary criticism has traditionally associated the work of Albert Camus with a very specific conception of literature. His more «philosphical» works (namely, his essays) are thus seen as demonstrations of the «message» that his truly literary works seek to transmit. As such, Le Mythe de Sisyphe and L'Homme révolté are considered to provide the driving themes (l'Absurde and la Révolte) of the author's fictive writings. This image (that of the «romancier à message») becomes problematic, however, in face of Camus' intransigent refusal to surrender to any form of dogma. Indeed, for the author, this possibility of surrender constitutes the greatest threat to la Révolte, representing its potential capitulation into Revolution and Terror. We believe that this notion of literature as a vehicle for philosophical beliefs is precisely the concept against which Camus was fighting.; Through the theme of «le juste», or more specifically the question of how we know what is just, Camus challenges this idea of literature and the act of writing. By exposing the mechanisms of self-justification underlying all universal values (and hence of all transcendental «truths» upon which they are necessarily based) the writer reveals them to be social and discursive constructs which permit and perpetuate the imposition of norms in a given domaine, including that of literature. This study proposes to examine Camus' rapport with this element of self-justification in literature, and the ways in which he calls the latter into question. |
