The focus of my thesis concerns what I refer to as Camus’s ‘philosophy of the
body.’ This study in part addresses the scholarly debate about how his texts are related.
Camus himself says of certain writers that their “books form a whole, ‘in which each is to
be understood in relation to the others, and in which they are all interdependent.’” ' If this
understanding of authorship equally applies to Camus’s works, the question concerns
linkage. What underlies this wholeness? Broadly speaking, there are three approaches to
understanding the relation between his texts: thematic, philosophic, and existential. None
of these ways is truly independent of the other. Each emphasizes a different aspect of
Camus’s project. He is an artist, thinker and man. Once again we are returned to the
question of linkage. The thematic approach tends to absolutize one mood or insight,
though Camus cautions against this. The philosophical approach generally reads the texts
dialectically. But Camus’s interest is in our living experience, not in a flight of the
intellect. An existential approach, understood correctly, concerns not a theory of but a
meditation on our concrete existence. If Camus’s works are read together as a sustained
meditation on existence, the integrity of the artist, thinker and man is preserved. Each
facet - beauty, truth and life - is held in a working tension as opposed to absolutizing or
subsuming any one aspect. Still the question remains. What underlies this integrity? Quite
literally, the body. I argue that Camus’s life work evokes a new way of seeing, thinking
and speaking about the body. In this dissertation, then, I look at various ways in which the
body is manifested across a selection of his essays and novels. I also consider what might
be some ofthe implications ofsuch manifestations. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/29582 |
| Date | 01 1900 |
| Creators | Mryglod, Camilla |
| Contributors | Planinc, Z., Religious Studies |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
Page generated in 0.002 seconds