Albert camus famous works

Who Was Albert Camus?

Albert Camus became known for his political journalism, novels and essays during the s. His best-known works, including The Stranger () and The Plague (), are exemplars of absurdism.

Albert camus the plague It was in playwriting that Camus felt most successful. He was also an outspoken critic of communist theory, eventually leading to a rift with Sartre. Camus used a pseudonym for his Combat articles and used false ID cards to avoid being captured. Camus was a moralist and leaned towards anarcho-syndicalism.

Camus won the Nobel Prize for Literature in and died on January 4, , in Burgundy, France.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Albert Camus
BORN: November 7,
DIED: January 4,
BIRTHPLACE: Mondavi, Algeria
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Scorpio

Early Life

Camus was born on November 7, , in Mondavi, French Algeria. His pied-noir family had little money.

Camus' father died in combat during World War I, after which Camus lived with his mother, who was partially deaf, in a low-income section of Algiers.

Camus did well in school and was admitted to the University of Algiers, where he studied philosophy and played goalie for the soccer team. He quit the team following a bout of tuberculosis in , thereafter focusing on academic study.

By , he had obtained undergraduate and graduate degrees in philosophy.

Political Engagement

Camus became political during his student years, joining first the Communist Party and then the Algerian People's Party. As a champion of individual rights, he opposed French colonization and argued for the empowerment of Algerians in politics and labor.

Camus would later be associated with the French anarchist movement.

At the beginning of World War II, Camus joined the French Resistance in order to help liberate Paris from the Nazi occupation; he met Jean-Paul Sartre during his period of military service.

Albert camus biography corta e In comparison, murder and suicide are one and the same thing, which must be taken or left together. Retrieved 9 January Authority control databases. He also turned to the theatre once more.

Like Sartre, Camus wrote and published political commentary on the conflict throughout its duration. In , he was one of the few Allied journalists to condemn the American use of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. He was also an outspoken critic of communist theory, eventually leading to a rift with Sartre.

Literary Career

The dominant philosophical contribution of Camus' work is absurdism.

While he is often associated with existentialism, he rejected the label, expressing surprise that he would be viewed as a philosophical ally of Sartre. Elements of absurdism and existentialism are present in Camus' most celebrated writing. The Myth of Sisyphus () elucidates his theory of the absurd most directly. The protagonists of The Stranger () and The Plague () must also confront the absurdity of social and cultural orthodoxies, with dire results.

As an Algerian, Camus brought a fresh, outsider perspective to French literature of the period — related to but distinct from the metropolitan literature of Paris.

Albert camus biography corta Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. Camus regretted the continued reference to himself as a "philosopher of the absurd". Camus was a vocal advocate of the "new Mediterranean Culture". Camus was politically active; he was part of the left that opposed Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union because of their totalitarianism.

In addition to novels, he wrote and adapted plays, and was active in the theater during the s and '50s. His later literary works include The Fall () and Exile and the Kingdom ().

Nobel Prize and Death

Albert Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in He died on January 4, , in Burgundy, France.

Personal Life

Camus married and divorced twice as a young man, stating his disapproval of the institution of marriage throughout.

Quotes

• There is only one really serious philosophical question, and that is suicide.
• A guilty conscience needs to confess.

  A work of art is a confession.

• A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.

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