Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
9-2017
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Program
French
Advisor
Peter Consenstein
Committee Members
Jason Herbeck
Ali Nematollahy
Subject Categories
Arts and Humanities | French and Francophone Language and Literature
Keywords
Camus La Nouvelle Culture Mediterraneenne, Mediterraneanism, La Peste, The Plague, Separation, Exile
Abstract
The following dissertation uses the speech Camus gave at the inauguration of a new community arts center in Algiers in 1937, entitled “La Culture Indigène. La Nouvelle Culture Méditerranéenne,” to show that this expression of Mediterraneanism, as well as its evolution, can be detected in his novel La Peste, which was published ten years later in 1947. The bearing of Camus’s identification with the Mediterranean world on his speech is that it generated a sense of in-betweenness. This in-betweenness, I argue, is a key feature of Camus’s Mediterranean thought that is also found in La Peste’s subject matter, its universal themes of exile, belonging, love and separation, along with the chronicle’s imitation of Thucydides’ own narratorial style. In-betweenness thus provides us with a lens through which Camus’s Mediterraneanism can be clearly linked to La Peste.
Recommended Citation
Libby, Jacquelyn, "Albert Camus's Mediterraneanism in La Peste" (2017). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2411