The Originality and Complexity of Albert Camus’s Writings

Book excerpt: Fifty years after Camus's untimely death, his work still has a tremendous impact on literature. From a twenty-first century vantage point, he offers us coexisting ideas and principles by which we can read and understand the other and ourselves. Yet Camus seems to guide us without directing us strictly; his fictions do not offer clear-cut solutions or doctrines to follow. This complexity is what demands that the oeuvre be read, and reread. The wide-ranging articles in this volume shed light, concentrate on the original aspects of Camus' writings, and explore how and why they are still relevant for us today.