L'Etranger: A Fictional View of Colonial Algeria
Albert Camus (1913 - 1960) is widely recognized as
one of France's most acclaimed writers of the twentieth century. He was born in Algeria, where he locates his
main works of fiction. Camus was raised
not far from the Arab quarter, so he was certainly familiar with Algerian
poverty. He knew and loved the
landscape of his county of birth.
However, he was thoroughly French, a product of French culture and
language, and beleived in the superiority of French culture over Arab and in
the absolute Frenchness of Algeria. In
the year of his birth, the governor-general of Algeria 'elaborated' the French
mission as, 'to substitute "civilization and common sense for barbarism
and fanaticism, which means the assimilation, unification and Frenchifying of
the races"' (cited by Mairowitz and Korkos, 2001
http://www.oocities.org/Athens/Aegean/1311/algeria.html). Dying two years short of Algerian independence,
Camus opposed the very concept of a separate Algerian nation. In his view,
As far as
Algeria is concerned, national independence is a formula driven by nothing
other than passion. There has never yet
been an Algerian nation. The Jews, the
Turks, Greeks, Italians, or Berbers would be as entitled to claim the
leadership of this potential nation. As
things stand, the Arabs do not comprise the whole of Algeria
The French of
Algeria are also natives, in the strong sense of the word. Moreover, a purely Arab
Algeria could not achieve that economic independence without which political
independence is nothing but an illusion.
However inadequate the French efforts have been, it is of such
proportions that no other country would today agree to take over the responsibility
(cited by Said, 1993 p 179).
Edward Said
encourages the reading of colonial texts to see 'what went into' them 'and
what' their authors 'excluded' (ibid,
p 67). With reference to Camus, he also
points out that the intended audience of Camu's books was exclusively European,
even though their context was Algeria.
For Camus, he suggests, Algeria existed for Europeans, who in a sense (and this is implied in the above
cited passage) had created Algeria.
Camu's L'Etranger was
published in 1942. The independence
struggle, although not yet the bloodshed, was already well under way yet any
reference to Algerian political aspirations or to the realities of colonial
rule are conspicuous by their absence. Thus, we should read into L'Etranger 'what was once forcibly
excluded
the whole previous history of France's colonialism and its
destruction of the Algerian state, and the later emergence of an independent
Algeria (which Camus opposed)' (ibid). In this way, the text becomes a tool for
voicing 'what is silent or marginally present or ideologically represented in
such' a work (ibid).
Although set
in Algeria, no few commentators regard the real context of L'Etranger to be Nazi occupied France. The text reflects the darkness and the moral malaise that many
experienced during that period. Camus
was an existentialist and the book is concerned with its chief character's own
dilemmas and conflicts, his seemingly unnatural attitude towards his own lack
of a moral conscience. 'Love' has no
meaning for him (p 44). At the start of
the novel, he can not mourn his mother's death (see p 79). He did not remember his mother's age (p
19). Then he shoots an Arab (who, like
all Arabs in the novel, has no name) and has no remorse for this act. In the court scene, he is criticized for
swimming and for going out with his girlfriend on the day his mother had died
(p 118). The prosecutor describes him
as 'devoid of the least spark of human feeling' (p 129), since he can only
answer questions clinically and factually.
He shows no emotion. Even though
the central event of the novel is an Arab's murder, there is no reference to
any probable cause, except that Meursault's friend, Raymond, appears to have
been followed by some Arabs (see p 61)
who may have 'had a grudge' against him.
However, the Arab characters (see citations below) are merely ciphers,
lacking personality or substance, unlike the European characters. Islam is
totally absent from the text.
Arabs in the Text: some examples
P
5: 'An Arab woman, a nurse, I supposed
- was sitting beside the bier; she was wearring a blue smock and had a rather
gaudy scarf wound round her hair'.
P
67: 'I noticed two Arabs in blue dungarees
coming in our direction
they
walked slowly
'.
P
67: A fight ensues, '"he's got a knife". I spoke too late. The man had gushed Raymond's arm and mouth
.'
P
69: 'The two natives backed away slowly, keeping us at bay with the knife and
never taking their eyes off us'.
P
71: 'The Arab with the reed went on playing, and both of them watched our
movements
.'
P
72: 'the Arabs vanished; they'd slipped like lizards under cover of the rock'
P
75: 'the Arab didn't move
I waited
then the Arab drew his knife
I fired
four shots into the inert body'.
P
89: 'they asked me what I'd done. I
told them I'd killed an Arab, and they kept mum for a while. But presently night began to fall, and one
of them explained to me how to lay out my sleeping mat'.
Discuss:
Can
readers learn anything about French attitudes towards Algeria from this text?
Respond to the way in which Arab's are represented in the text. Are they only 'subjects' of French action?
Is
this a text that, to adapt a term used by Chinua Achebe of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, 'should not be read',
or is Said right to suggest that such a text can be converted into a useful
tool for critiquing colonial assumptions?
Do
you think the text provides any useful insight into or information on Algeria's
anti-colonial struggle?
How
might an Algerian today evaluate this novel?
Would they share the common French view that this is one of the classics
of modern French literature?
Edward Said Culture and Imperialism New York, Vintage (1993).
© Clinton Bennett 2001