Camus: 'The Stranger' -- A Student Guide

Abstract

By Patrick McCarthy (Second edition). Cambridge University Press. 2004. xiii+109 pp. Hb £27.50; $43.00. Pb £9.95; $15.00. When, in 1988, Patrick McCarthy first published this guide to Camus's L'Étranger, his focus on the Algerian and colonial aspects of the novel gave this study a new and refreshing direction. Sixteen years later, his point remains worth making that the reception of L'Étranger involved a historical contradiction in that Camus's novel, written in pre-war Algeria, was read in Europe during the Occupation and interpreted as a reflection of conflicts in France and Europe; additionally, he points out, Sartre's early review imposed a reading that remains dominant. As a consequence of such factors, the ‘specifically Algerian’ characteristics of the novel were overlooked and it was read ‘in a supposedly universal but in fact Western European context as a manual of how an individual may live in a world without authentic values’ (p. 13). This is a valuable corrective, especially for those approaching the novel for the first time. A useful biographical introduction is followed by an overview of the intellectual and political currents of the time, where McCarthy argues the need to look at both French and Algerian literary and political history. Analysis of the novel is contained in the second chapter, followed by a short chapter on Camus and Sartre, a new, wide-ranging chapter on the Algerian War and, in the final chapter, suggestions for further reading. During the course of this short study, the author manages to touch on most of Camus's major writings in an informative way. Despite its target audience, some assertions seem overly simplistic, as in the statement that ‘since the Arabs do not themselves oppress, their silence is a mark of authenticity’ (p. 17), but generally speaking and true to its aim, this guide is clearly written and ‘jargon-free’, yet manages to discuss long-standing debates in sufficient depth. At one point, however, McCarthy identifies his vantage point as that of the 1980s (p. 54), and this is a little disappointing. Jean Gassin's very influential psychoanalytical study of the symbols in Camus's work was published in 1981 and although it is not therefore surprising that McCarthy adopted such an approach in addition to a political one, the attempt to marry these two remains unconvincing. If, as McCarthy states, psychoanalytical readings cannot explain why it is an Arab who is murdered (p. 43), then why is there so much emphasis on this suggested explanation of Meursault's behaviour when, in a direct parallel, it is an Arab who is savagely beaten earlier in the novel? McCarthy's distinction between ‘sexual politics’ and ‘colonial politics’, which allows the relegation of the former to a supposedly apolitical psychoanalytical sphere, seems to me a little dated and ultimately unhelpful. Here, the guide betrays its origins in the 1980s, as does the final chapter, whose suggestions for further reading appear to have undergone little revision, containing only one reference to an article written later than 1980 (on La Peste). Such slight reservations notwithstanding, this remains a very worthwhile study of L'Étranger and is to be recommended.