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Annotated Bibliography for Albert Camus The Stranger

"Albert Camus." Contemporary Literary Criticism Select. Detroit: Gale, Literature

Resource Center. Gale. Malden High School. 8 Dec. 2010
<http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRC&u=mlin_b_maldenhs>.

Summary:

This article explains the childhood and influences Camus had in his life which helps us
understand why he has his style of writing. Also talks about the things he went through in
his life.

Important Quotes:

Born in Mondovi, Algeria, a French colony in North Africa until 1962, Camus was raised
in poverty by his illiterate Spanish mother. His father, an itinerant laborer of French
descent, was fatally wounded in the First World War before Camus reached his first
birthday. In 1914 Camus moved with his brother and emotionally detached mother into a
small apartment in Algiers which they shared with his uncle and grandmother. The
adverse circumstances of his upbringing forged a lasting respect for his hardworking
mother and the plight of the underprivileged (Par. 2).

Camus is widely recognized as one of the most provocative and enduring literary figures
of the postwar period. He is consistently praised for his perceptive evocation of
metaphysical despair, the stark intensity and natural imagery of his lyrical prose, and his
unequivocal condemnation of political tyranny. A preeminent absurdist writer who
captured the moral climate of his generation, Camus defined the philosophical and artistic
sensibility of many contemporary authors, especially those affiliated with the Theatre of
the Absurd during the 1950s and 1960s. His popular association with existentialism, a
classification that he dismissed, is traced to the philosophical legacy of Fydor
Dostoyevsky, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Soren Kierkegaard. While The Stranger and The
Myth of Sisyphus are viewed as his greatest accomplishments, Camus is also highly
regarded for The Plague, The Fall, and his examination of revolution in The Rebel.
Critics note that The First Man, though incomplete, is further evidence of Camus's
remarkable sensitivity and narrative gifts. Caligula and The Misunderstanding are
generally considered Camus's most effective plays, however, his dramatic works as a
whole are typically viewed as secondary to his novels and essays. The Stranger, his best
known work and a brilliant study of modern alienation, continues to attract rigorous
critical scrutiny directed at the moral and psychological motivations of its protagonist,
particularly as informed by Camus's aversion to capital punishment and his relationship
with his mother. Critics frequently comment on the significance of Camus's early poverty
and the Algerian landscape in this and all his writings. Though Camus enjoyed a
mercurial rise, he became the subject of ridicule following his notorious break with Sartre
, intensified by his neutrality during the Franco-Algerian war. Camus's detractors,
especially those allied with Sartre, cite egregious elements of political naivete, moral
intransigence, and philosophical amateurism in his writing. Despite such criticism,
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Camus's literary reputation rests largely upon the power of his prose, his unshakable
commitment to his art, and his compelling effort to fashion meaning out the absurd (Par.
4).

Purpose:

I would use this article to teach The Stranger it would show influences that cause the
book to be written. Helps take a look into the mind of Albert Camus.

"Algeria Asks France To Admit Violence." New York Times 9 May 2005: A10(L). Gale
World History In Context. Web. 9 Dec. 2010.

Summary:

This article talks about how Algerian were treated during the World War 2 period.

Important Quotes:

''The paradox of the massacres of May 8, 1945, is that when the heroic Algerian
combatants returned from the fronts in Europe, Africa and elsewhere where they
defended France's honor and interests,'' Mr. Bouteflika said in the speech, ''the French
administration fired on peaceful demonstrators.'' The speech, given in the city of Setif on
Saturday, was published by Algeria's state media (Par. 3).
French colonial forces mounted an air and ground offensive that lasted for several days
against several eastern cities, particularly Setif and Guelma, in response to the
independence demonstrations. The Algerian government says the French offensive left
45,000 people dead. European historians put the figure at 15,000 to 20,000 (Par.4).
　
Purpose:

This would help connect to The Stranger talking about how France is connected to
Algeria. This article also talks about how France treated Algeria unfairly.

Arnold, A. James. "Albert Camus: Overview." Reference Guide to World Literature. Ed.
Lesley Henderson. 2nd ed. New York: St. James Press, 1995. Literature Resource
Center. Gale. Malden High School. 9 Dec. 2010
<http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRC&u=mlin_b_maldenhs>.

Summary:

This article talk about Albert Camus book The Stranger and how it’s not a novel but is a
essay talking about the understanding of Absurdity

Important Quotes:
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An essay on the notion of the Absurd, entitled Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of
Sisyphus), has been taken by many readers since Sartre to be the theory of which The
Outsider is the illustration. Camus's Absurd is a description of a state more familiar to
some English-speaking readers as a variety of contemporary thought posited on the death
of God (Par. 3).

The cycle of the Absurd antedates his experience of the war in the Resistance. It was
essentially complete by 1941, and in 1942 he began work on the cycle of Revolt which
owed a great deal more to the war than did its predecessor. Once again the trilogy
included a novel, La Peste (The Plague), an essay, L'Homme révolté (The Rebel), and a
play, Les Justes (The Just Assassins). The Rebel was attacked in Les Temps Modernes, a
pro-communist magazine edited by Sartre (Par. 4).

Purpose:

I would use this to teach because it helps explain the theory of absurdity. It takes a look at
the human mind. It shows how people think.

Beegel, Susan F. "A Room on the Garden Side': Hemingway's unpublished liberation of
Paris." Studies in Short Fiction. (Vol. 31). .4 (Fall 1994): p627. Literature
Resource Center. Gale. Malden High School. 8 Dec. 2010
<http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRC&u=mlin_b_maldenhs>.

Summary:

This article is about types of writers in Paris during the 1950s. While World War 2 war
going on.

Important Quotes:

celebrity had been a problem for Hemingway during his attempts to cover World War II,
it had become a difficulty of monstrous proportions by 1956, when "A Room on the
Garden Side" was written. In 1952, The Old Man and the Sea, published in Life
magazine, sold nearly six million copies overnight. The novella's global popularity
earned Hemingway the 1954 Nobel Prize, completing the destruction of his privacy. The
author felt "overrun by journalists, photographers, and plain and fancy crazies" (843). In
a September 1956 letter to Harvey Breit, Hemingway complains about autograph hunters
and people naming their dogs Santiago, and remarks "Probably I would do better never to
publish anything else. Simpler to leave stuff for when I am dead (Par. 26).

Purpose:

My reason for using this to teach The Stranger is because it deals with Paris at the time of
the book. It show what was going on around the story. Also Meursault is from Paris so it
relates to where he is from.
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"existentialism." Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. Springfield, MA:

Merriam-Webster, 1995. Literature Resource Center. Gale. Malden High School.
8 Dec. 2010 <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?
p=LitRC&u=mlin_b_maldenhs>.

Summary:

This article explains what existentialism is.

Important Quotes:

A family of philosophies devoted to an interpretation of human existence in the world

that stresses its concreteness and its problematic character. As a self-conscious movement
it is primarily a 20th-century phenomenon, embracing the theories of Martin Heidegger,
Karl Jaspers, Jean-Paul Sartre, Gabriel Marcel, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, but its
characteristic features occurred earlier, especially in the 19th-century thinkers Friedrich
Nietzsche and Søren Kierkegaard (Par. 1)

Existentialism inspired a large body of imaginative literature, such as that of Sartre,

Albert Camus, and Simone de Beauvoir. Existentialist writers are characterized by their
concern with “being,” which contrasts not only with knowing but also with abstract
concepts, which cannot fully capture what is individual and specific. The existentialist
movement also provided a means of articulating and interpreting these same themes as
discerned in works of literature from all periods (Par. 4).

Purpose:

This article will help teach The Stranger because it helps explain how Meursault is a
outsider. Also explain how he is unique.

“Growing Up Immigrant #1.” You Tube. madamhadassah 9 Aug. 2010. 15 Dec. 2010

Summary:

About being from Haiti and migrating to another country. The struggles faces and
differences. The girl from the video felt uncomfortable.

Purpose:

To relate the girl from the video to Meursault as a immigrant in a new country. She talk
about feeling like a outsider which is actually a translation to the book The Stranger. She
relates her self to the other kids when she was growing up and saw it was noticeable to
see that was wasn’t from the new country.

McKay, Claude. “The White City” Poetry Out Loud. 10 Dec. 2010.
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Summary:

The poem is a black man that was put into a white mans world and feels lost.
Important Quotes:
I will not toy with it nor bend an inch.
Deep in the secret chambers of my heart
I muse my life-long hate, and without flinch
I bear it nobly as I live my part.
My being would be a skeleton, a shell,
If this dark Passion that fills my every mood,
And makes my heaven in the white world’s hell,
Did not forever feed me vital blood.
I see the mighty city through a mist—
The strident trains that speed the goaded mass,
The poles and spires and towers vapor-kissed,
The fortressed port through which the great ships pass,
The tides, the wharves, the dens I contemplate,
Are sweet like wanton loves because I hate.
　
Purpose:

I would use this poem to teach The Stranger because the author goes through a lot of the
same emotion as Meursault. This person feels lost in the world. He seem like he doesn’t
know what to feel. Nor does he want to share his emotions.

Proefriedt, William A. "The Immigrant or 'Outsider' Experience as Metaphor for

Becoming an Educated Person in the Modern World: Mary Antin, Richard
Wright, and Eva Hoffman." MELUS. 16.2 (Spring 1989): 77-89. Rpt. in
Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 182. Detroit: Gale,
2004. Literature Resource Center. Gale. Malden High School. 8 Dec. 2010
<http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRC&u=mlin_b_maldenhs>.

Summary:

This Article talks about being a outsider in a country.

Important Quotes:

In all of this, those moving from one culture to another have been viewed as presenting
an educational problem. There surely are senses in which that is the case. But it is also
the case that for some persons the experience of moving between or among cultures is
undergone in ways that are profoundly educational. Further, an analysis of the
educational dimensions of this experience raises questions about our understanding of
educational purposes. I will argue that the immigrant experience serves as metaphor for
what it means to be genuinely educated in the modern world (Par. 2).
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For centuries the dominant view of educational purpose has been the induction of the
young into the knowledge, values and practices of a given society. If there was a
liberatory aspect to this educational theory, the liberation was reserved for a priestly or
leadership class that would have the task of running the society. As late as the turn of the
century, we see Emile Durkheim, in an effort of desperate nostalgia, long after the king
has been killed and the church pushed to the margins of national life, attempt to
reinstitute an absolute moral order, rooted only in the moral practice of the day, but
presented to the students as making absolute claims on them (Par. 7).

Purpose:

This can relate to Meursault being a immigrant in Algeria. It can show some of the
struggles he may have faced immigrating to a new country.