ALBERT CAMUS:
THE SMILING SISYPHUS
Significant Events
• Born Nov. 7, 1913 in Mondovi, French
Algeria
• Father dies in 1914 during World War I, only
story Albert knows is that his father became
violently ill at a public execution.
• Mother was illiterate, partially deaf, and
afflicted with a speech disorder – very poor.
• Attended elementary in a school close to a
Moslem community and saw first-hand the
idea of the “outsider” he would later develop.
Significant Events
• High school: developed a lifetime love for
literature, theater, and film.
• Also enjoyed soccer for sport and the life lessons
it taught him
“I learned . . . that a ball never arrives from a direction you
expected it. That helped me later in life, especially in
mainland France, where nobody plays straight.”
Significant Events
• Briefly joined the Communist Party but was
disillusioned by the mindless, even absurd, work
he was assigned to do.
• In the 1940’s his writing began to attract
international attention.
• In 1957, he was awarded the Nobel Prize. He was
grateful, but he felt he had not yet achieved the
fame such an award indicated.
Significant Events
On January 4, 1960, Camus died tragically in a
car accident.
The Myth of Sisyphus
Camus publishes this non-fiction work a year after
completing The Stranger. In this retelling of the
myth of Sisyphus, he embodies his concept of the
Absurd.
The story concludes with Camus’ pivotal
philosophical statement:
“The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to
fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus
happy.”
To understand his point, we must understand the
themes that his writing explores.
Themes of Albert Camus
 The Absurd
 Revolt
 The Outsider
 Guilt and Innocence
 Christianity vs. Paganism
 Individual vs. History and Mass Culture
 Suicide
 The Death Penalty
The Absurd
“The absurd is the product of a collision
between human desire for order meaning and
purpose and the indifferent `silence of the
universe.’”
We have only three responses to this predicament:
Physical suicide
Cowardly
Religious meaning
Philosophical suicide
Acceptance
Only rational choice
Life can “be lived all the better if it has no meaning.”
Revolt
“A spirit of opposition
against any perceived
unfairness, oppression,
or indignity in the
human condition.”
This idea runs counter to existentialism as it proposes that
there is a common good that is more important than one’s
destiny. True revolt is performed out of compassion for others.
The Outsider
“The `stranger’ or the outsider
observes everything, even his
own behavior, from an outside
perspective.”
Camus lived most of his life
being in various groups without
being of them. This view
requires a “zero-degree”
objectivity about everything.
Camus had this with friends
and community.
Guilt and
Innocence
There is no clear answer to
this in The Starnger. The
reader must decide if the
character (or man for that
matter) is legally innocent of
the murder he is charged with
or if he is technically guilty?
It is the struggle between
universal guilt (original sin)
and universal innocence
(pagan primitivism)
Christianity
vs. Paganism
Camus respects the writings
of St. Augustine and
Kierkegaard and even uses
many Christian symbols in his
writing, but he maintains a
Pagan world views.
“I continue to believe that this world
has no supernatural meaning . . . But
I know that something in this world
has meaning – man.”
Individual vs. History and Mass Culture
Modern life has an alienating and
dehumanizing effect of man. We live in an
age that is becoming more impersonal
everyday. If anything, modern man lives the
drudgery of Sisyphus in meaningless jobs
with mind-numbing repetitions.
Suicide
This, for Camus,
is the
fundamental
issue for moral
philosophy as it
represents the
only possible
response to the
Absurd. In the
end, the morally
valid response is
to continue
living.
Death Penalty
Camus opposes
the death
penalty in all of
his writings. He
considered it
“the most
premeditated
of murders”
because it
causes the
victim to suffer
his death every
day until it
happens.
Existentialism?
Although Camus was personally
committed to values such as
individualism, free choice, inner
strength, authenticity, personal
responsibility, and self
determination, he repeatedly
denied that he was an
existentialist.
Although he
embraced many of the ideas, he
believed that for one to be
considered anything one must
commit themselves totally to that
doctrine, he was unwilling to do
this.
Special Thanks
This power point is taken from
The Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy: Albert Camus.
http://www.iep.utm.edu/c/cam
us.htm