The Colonial Contradictions of Albert Camus
French writer Albert Camus has become an iconic figure, celebrated by everyone from Emmanuel Macron to George W. Bush. But the idealized public image of Camus as a liberal humanist does not reckon honestly with the impact of French colonialism on his work.
Albert Camus in 1957. (Wikimedia Commons)
What do George W. Bush, an African-American prisoner sentenced to death in Indiana, the entire French political class (from the extreme right to the Anarchist Federation), Hollywood stars, and anti-colonialist Arab intellectuals have in common? They have all laid claim to the legacy of Albert Camus.
Camus is a fascinating character in his own right, who left behind an important body of writing, and the story of his life sheds light on a crucial period in French and Algerian history. But his cult status — and the seemingly contradictory readings of his work — make Camus very much a man of our own time, too.
Betwixt and Between
Camus (1913–1960) was a French novelist, philosopher, journalist, essayist, and playwright, born in French Algeria to a family of white settlers (called Pieds-Noirs in French). Although he came from a modest social background, Camus emerged as a major literary figure of his generation, and received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, three years before his death in a car accident.
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