Distanced by Default or the Mandates of Marginalization in Camus’ L’étranger
DISTANCED BY DEFAULT OR THE
MANDATES OF MARGINALIZATION IN
CAMUS’ L’ÉTRANGER
Mary Jo Muratore*
T
he enigmatic Meursault has preoccupied readers for over a half a century, and there is little danger that critics will exhaust any time soon the interpretive possibilities Camus’ narrative provides. Because of Camus’ pivotal role in the existentialist movement, L’Étranger is often read as a kind of philosophical bildingsroman wherein the protagonist moves from a state of selfindulgent unawareness to metaphysical lucidity as a result of his experiences. In such readings, Meursault’s detached egocentrism, so prominently in evidence in Part 1, is supplanted by his discovery of an indifferent universe in Part 2. The problem with this reading is that it suggests Meursault undergoes a fundamental intellectual shift when in truth he simply confirms what he already suspected
(“J’avais eu raison, j’avais encore raison, j’avais toujours raison” [p. 1208]).1
One of Meursault’s metaphysical certainties is that the inevitability of death nullifies any sense of purpose in life, making it hardly worth living at all
(“Mais tout le monde sait que la vie ne vaut pas la peine d’être vécue” [p. 1204]).
* University of Missouri - Columbia
1 All references are to: CAMUS, A. Théâtre, Récits, Nouvelles. Paris: Pléiade,
1962; CHATAIN, G. D. Narrative Desire. In: KING, A. L’Étranger, Camus’s L’Étranger:
Fifty Years On. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992. p. 127, also notes the deficiencies of an evolutionary reading due to Meursault’s reluctance to seriously consider his crime.
Revista Letras, Curitiba, n. 60, p.111-132, jul./dez. 2003. Editora UFPR
111
MURATORE, M. J. Distanced by default or the mandates...
But this rather banal observation from a condemned man provides scant evidence of a metaphysical transformation. Indeed, its very lack of sophistication underscores the fact that neither Meursault nor his thought can be said to have evolved much
MANDATES OF MARGINALIZATION IN
CAMUS’ L’ÉTRANGER
Mary Jo Muratore*
T
he enigmatic Meursault has preoccupied readers for over a half a century, and there is little danger that critics will exhaust any time soon the interpretive possibilities Camus’ narrative provides. Because of Camus’ pivotal role in the existentialist movement, L’Étranger is often read as a kind of philosophical bildingsroman wherein the protagonist moves from a state of selfindulgent unawareness to metaphysical lucidity as a result of his experiences. In such readings, Meursault’s detached egocentrism, so prominently in evidence in Part 1, is supplanted by his discovery of an indifferent universe in Part 2. The problem with this reading is that it suggests Meursault undergoes a fundamental intellectual shift when in truth he simply confirms what he already suspected
(“J’avais eu raison, j’avais encore raison, j’avais toujours raison” [p. 1208]).1
One of Meursault’s metaphysical certainties is that the inevitability of death nullifies any sense of purpose in life, making it hardly worth living at all
(“Mais tout le monde sait que la vie ne vaut pas la peine d’être vécue” [p. 1204]).
* University of Missouri - Columbia
1 All references are to: CAMUS, A. Théâtre, Récits, Nouvelles. Paris: Pléiade,
1962; CHATAIN, G. D. Narrative Desire. In: KING, A. L’Étranger, Camus’s L’Étranger:
Fifty Years On. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992. p. 127, also notes the deficiencies of an evolutionary reading due to Meursault’s reluctance to seriously consider his crime.
Revista Letras, Curitiba, n. 60, p.111-132, jul./dez. 2003. Editora UFPR
111
MURATORE, M. J. Distanced by default or the mandates...
But this rather banal observation from a condemned man provides scant evidence of a metaphysical transformation. Indeed, its very lack of sophistication underscores the fact that neither Meursault nor his thought can be said to have evolved much
Cited: BROCK, R. Meursault the Straw Man. Studies in the Novel, ano 1, n. 25, p. 92-100, 1993. CAMUS, A. Théâtre, Récits, Nouvelles. Paris: Pléiade, 1962. CHAMPIGNY, R. Sur un héros païen. Paris: Gallimard, 1959. Revista Letras, Curitiba, n. 60, p. 111-132, jul./dez. 2003. Editora UFPR 131 American Imago: Studies in Psychoanalysis & Culture, ano 4, n. 45, p. 359-374, 1988. Camus’s L’Étranger: Fifty Years On. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992. p. 152-169. MOROT-SIR, E. Actualité de L’Étranger. Revue des Lettres Modernes, n. 17, p. 7-26, 1996. ano 2, n. 16, p. 265-288, 1992. (Ed.). Camus’s L’Étranger: Fifty Years On. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992. p. 147149.