Albert Camus, The Stranger, The First Man, colonial representation, alterity, identity, post-colonialism, French Algeria, power dynamics, prejudices, stereotypes
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Abstract
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Abstract
Analysis of alterity, identity, and colonial representation in The Stranger and The First Man by Albert Camus.
Extract
[...] And this time, without lifting himself, the Arab drew his knife that he presented to me in the sun. The light splashed on the steel and it was like a long shining blade that was hitting me on the forehead. At the same instant, the sweat accumulated in my eyebrows flowed all at once onto my eyelids and covered them with a warm and thick veil. My eyes were blinded behind this curtain of tears and salt Representation of Alterity: In this excerpt, Meursault is confronted with a physical confrontation situation with the Arab on the beach. [...]
[...] French Cultural Studies, 167-189. [...]
[...] The excerpt also highlights Meursault's questioning of social norms and conventional identity constructions. His desire to turn back and end the situation reflects a sense of detachment from social conventions and the expectations of the colonial society. This indifference to traditional social norms echoes the way identities can be contested and reconstructed in a colonial context, where the boundaries between social categories are blurred and questioned. The importance of the sun in this scene has been much commented on, and Meursault will justify his action by giving as a motive the solar star. [...]
[...] His tranquil certainty and assurance testify to his inner strength and his ability to face challenges with resilience. In the colonial context evoked by our problematic, this identity quest takes on a particular dimension. The child, confronted with an unknown and sometimes hostile world, seeks to find a place, not in the structures imposed by colonial society, but in an ideal of freedom, strength, and joy. This attitude highlights the individual's resistance to social norms and identity constructions imposed by colonialism. Firstly, the child is presented as evolving in an environment marked by poverty and ignorance. [...]
[...] Camus.' He said of man, 'Social life risks capturing him entirely, depriving him of his self and making him a puppet without a soul' (L'Express, April 1957). This idea is confirmed by Meursault himself: 'He turned towards me / . / while continuing to overwhelm me without me really understanding why.' This predetermined character, and thus, we will see, revealing, is created for the sake of the cause. Everything that follows is inevitable, because he submits to his fate like a fatality, without having any power over things, exactly like man in the real world. define my character negatively,' notes Camus in 1942. [...]
