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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

224398

Affliction, revolt, and love

Sophie Bourgault

pp. 125-142

Abstract

During his famous visit to Stockholm in 1957, Albert Camus was repeatedly invited to comment upon the evolution, meaning, and future directions of his work. In one particular conversation, he summed up his works as a trilogy loosely organized around the following three concepts (or "layers"): absurdity, revolt, and love.2 Indeed, Camus identified love as the third "layer" that was going to be at the heart of his reflections in the years to come. In the preface to the second edition of L"Envers et l"Endroit, Camus also admitted that the œuvre that he "dreamed of" would speak of "a certain kind of love."3 But unfortunately for us, Camus died soon after making these statements, leaving us with an unfinished trilogy. His "third layer" failed to get as sustained a treatment as the absurd received in The Myth of Sisyphus, or revolt received in The Rebel. While some of Camus's novels and plays are peppered with vivid pronouncements on the difficulties or beauty of love (whether erotic love, the love of a mother, or the love of living),4 on the whole it seems that we have a fairly modest textual basis to work with in order to theorize what could be called "Camusian love." This silence is particularly regrettable given the fact that revolt, a central concept for Camus, ends—if not begins—with love.5 Love seems to be the "backdrop" of everything, as he intimates at the end of The Rebel and in his Carnets. "From the starting point of the absurd," he writes, "it is impossible to live in rebellion without leading, in some manner, to the experience of a love that remains to be defined."6

Publication details

Published in:

Vanborre Emmanuelle Anne (2012) The originality and complexity of Albert Camus's writings. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Pages: 125-142

DOI: 10.1057/9781137309471_10

Full citation:

Bourgault Sophie (2012) „Affliction, revolt, and love“, In: E. Vanborre (ed.), The originality and complexity of Albert Camus's writings, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 125–142.