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The Outsider

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The Stranger (novel) The Outsider or The Stranger (French: L’Étranger) is a novel by Albert Camus published in 1942.

The Stranger (novel)

Its theme and outlook are often cited as exemplars of Camus's philosophy of the absurd and existentialism, though Camus personally rejected the latter label. [citation needed] The titular character is Meursault, an indifferent Algerian ("a citizen of France domiciled in North Africa, a man of the Mediterranean, an homme du midi yet one who hardly partakes of the traditional Mediterranean culture")[2] who, after attending his mother's funeral, apathetically and seemingly irrationally kills an Arab man whom he recognises in French Algiers. The story is divided into two parts: Meursault's first-person narrative view before and after the murder, respectively. In January 1955, Camus said, "I summarized The Stranger a long time ago, with a remark I admit was highly paradoxical: 'In our society any man who does not weep at his mother's funeral runs the risk of being sentenced to death.'

Camus - The Stranger (aka Outsider) - discussion. Meursault, the anti-hero of Camus masterpiece L’etranger continually puts the reader on the back foot: as he appears as an intensely self-interested man, but also an innocent abroad, he can be an extremely sensual man, but also a callous individual, he seems to be both a rebel and a man desperately trying to conform, above all he is an absurd man and we witness his growing self-awareness of the world around him that he struggles to come to terms with.

Camus - The Stranger (aka Outsider) - discussion

The novel takes the form of a bildungsroman, as we witness his growth through adversity following the choices he makes in a life, which he comes to believe is absurd.. I read this back in the 1970’s and found I could identify with Meursault the sensual self-interested young man of part 1 of the novel, however I could not get to grips with his seeming acquiescence to his fate in part 2, putting it down to the establishments vindictiveness towards a young man, who appeared to rebel against society. Existentialist Themes and the Society. In Albert Camus’s first novel, The Outsider, his thoughts as an existentialist is demonstrated.

Existentialist Themes and the Society

The underlying plot of the novel is about the protagonist, Mersault, who commits a murder and then receives a death sentence. As the novel approaches the climax, more ideas of existentialism are revealed, and more is learned about the character. This novel shows how Mersault acts as an outsider to the society, and is then “condemned because he doesn’t play the game” (Camus 118). In Albert Camus’s The Outsider, the existentialist themes of anxiety and a meaningless existence characterizes the existentialist hero, Mersault.

Albert Camus first develops Mersault as an existentialist hero by using the notion of anxiety. Because Mersault rejects religion, he believes in himself and denies the existence of a higher power. Albert Camus creates Mersault as an existentialist by pointing out his belief in irrelevance. Mersault is an existentialist for he lacks a sense of right and wrong. Camus's "The Stranger": First-Line Translation. For the modern American reader, few lines in French literature are as famous as the opening of Albert Camus’s “L’Étranger”: “Aujourd’hui, maman est morte.”

Camus's "The Stranger": First-Line Translation

Nitty-gritty tense issues aside, the first sentence of “The Stranger” is so elementary that even a schoolboy with a base knowledge of French could adequately translate it. So why do the pros keep getting it wrong? Within the novel’s first sentence, two subtle and seemingly minor translation decisions have the power to change the way we read everything that follows.

What makes these particular choices prickly is that they poke at a long-standing debate among the literary community: whether it is necessary for a translator to have some sort of special affinity with a work’s author in order to produce the best possible text. Arthur Goldhammer, translator of a volume of Camus’s Combat editorials, calls it “nonsense” to believe that “good translation requires some sort of mystical sympathy between author and translator.” Albert Camus. Find your way around Articles and Essays on Camus and his ideas Camus Society MAILING LIST Sign up here to receive important updates about the Camus Society and our new monthly newsletter.

Albert Camus

Journal of Camus Studies | JCS. The cult of the outsider. Mean, moody and alone.

The cult of the outsider

The Stranger: Context. The Stranger. The Outsider by Albert Camus – review. "Aujourd'hui, maman est morte.

The Outsider by Albert Camus – review

Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas. " So, famously, opens Albert Camus's 1942 novel L'Etranger, but it's intriguing to see how differently those two sentences have been translated, despite the simplicity of Camus's construction. In Joseph Laredo's terse, widely read 1982 translation, he renders the opening as: "Mother died today.

Or maybe yesterday, I don't know. " In Sandra Smith's new translation, she inserts a possessive pronoun: "My mother died today. Marcel Berlins asks what makes Albert Camus such an enduring favourite with men? For years, I have thought of myself as one of a small, discriminating group whose members, touched by a common emotional quirk, regarded Albert Camus's L'Etranger (The Outsider) as the most important and influential book they have read.

Marcel Berlins asks what makes Albert Camus such an enduring favourite with men?

Imagine my distress, on reading last Thursday's Guardian, to discover that a whole swathe of English male media types, academics and students were claiming similar intimacy with the book, and attesting to its significance for them. Last year, academics Lisa Jardine and Annie Watkins conducted a survey, among women only, to find out what "watershed" novel had most sustained and helped them through difficult times. The Stranger.