Albert Camus The Stranger-Part 2-Existentialism- Philosophy of Existence

"Albert Camus: The Stranger"- No Excuses: Existentialism And The Meaning To Life
by Robert Solomon, PhD
The Teaching Company

Albert Camus' book "The Stranger" is one of the important books in the genre of absurdity, or the Theater of Absurd...It has some very key existential elements, pay close attention...

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[EndureFocusEngageDie]

What happened to part 1?

[cobracarg]

@EndureFocusEngageDie I had this whole series that included talks on Nietzsche, Sartre, Kirkegaard, and Heidegger but youtube has taken them down. the vids that I have left are ones that youtube has not taken down. sorry

[EndureFocusEngageDie]

@cobracarg :( grar corporatocracy, why would they do that!

[talitakoomi]

What I have written is just a brief taste of what I've been chewing on for several weeks ...this character is intriguing and Camus' paradoxical presentation of him as one who is "simple" and yet also profoundly complex is extraordinary. This is a book which, like the bible, has many different levels and depths to it: a surface reading is fine, even easy, but if you want to go down where the pressure is high, the light dim & filtered- Camus can take you there. Comments? Ideas? Let's talk!

[talitakoomi]

While Mr. Solomon makes some insightful comments in this lecture, I think he is staying up safely on the surface where the other critics and book-discussers hang-out and comfortably speak the same "correct" language with one another. However,The Stranger practically insists we venture into the deeper, darker realms of the human psyche as expressed in literature to confront a character who makes us uncomfortable-1st by who HE is-but then by OUR inability to truly label him, and WHY that bugs us.

[talitakoomi]

>placed upon us by society and culture? Even today, those who don't openly cry at the funeral of a loved one are seen as being "in denial" or "cold" or even mentally ill. The prosecutor's attempt to label him-to even say he's guilty of the patricide yet to be tried!- his passionate hatred of this man he does not understand-is absurd, as is his own lawyer, who did NOT defend him well. To the analytical, logical mind-nothing is worse than an enigma- to understand, define & label, is to conquer.

[talitakoomi]

(contd from below...) What IS true about him is that he doesn't react or think in the WAYS deemed "normal" by his society. It is this inability to understand and classify him which proves his ultimate undoing. Part 2 reveals that he DOES have emotions and morals; they were there al the time, but he did not express them. Also, his "shocking", "callous" statements are, when examined, true- and things we all think, but don't say. So which is more absurd- Mersault, or the oft arbitrary expectations>

[talitakoomi]

I've spent alot of time reading and rereading The Stranger and making notes on what I see, and I am beginning to realize that whether done on purpose or not, Camus has created a character that's almost impossible to label & categorize. Part 1 leads to a conclusion that he is, as this speaker says, devoid of "human" emotion- some sort of soul-less monster living a life of indifference. But Camus pulls a literary sleight of hand in part 2- and we realize Mesrsault is not easily pigeon-holed...

[kat81771]

Meursault is not unfeeling or disconnected just unaffected; Camus’ exploration of a possible ideal person. Camus has experienced trauma and survived scathed. Through the use of literary devices such as characterization, tone, foreshadowing, juxtaposition, antithesis and syntax Camus places his character into reality and shows what he feels would happen forming a reflection of himself and the complex aforementioned moral.

[kat81771]

could anyone respond to my introduction paragraph for a ibo world lit paper on the subject? here it is(:

The novel L’Étranger or, The Stranger was written in 1942 by Albert Camus with the intent to show a flaw in how people judge each other. Put simply, he showed that it is not what a person has done but how they feel in response to what they have done. That lesson is displayed masterfully but it takes on more meaning given Camus’ tragic experiences.