Albert Camus’ Speech of Acceptance Upon the Award of the Nobel Prize for Literature complements Camus’ philosophy. The small pamphlet decorated with thin yellow and blue lines on a cream background creates a very timeless yet interesting look. Albert Camus’ name is boldly displayed in large letters above the title, this emphasizes the significance of the author. The cover features the date the speech was given, revealing the date of the speech shows the lasting significance of Camus and his ideologies. The inside of the pamphlet does not feature any ornamentation, decorative fonts, or creative design elements. The words are small, the spacing does not allow for a lot of blank space between the lines, and the margins are unusually large creating the sense that the words are surrounded by a frame. The outside and inside of the pamphlet add to the speech that it contains, the absence of decoration and large margins draw the eye to the words written.
The “The Adulterous Woman” was written the same year Camus accepted the Nobel Prize, 1957. Understanding the works in this context allows the reader to get a more holistic image of Camus. As discussed in class, Camus’ philosophy changed and evolved throughout his life but he consistently claimed that he is not an existentialist. However at the end of the speech he mentions “… I have never been able to forget the sunlight, the delight in life, the freedom in which I grew up. But although that nostalgia explains many of my mistakes and shortcomings, it doubtless helped me to understand my calling …” which seems contradictory to his denial of being an existentialist. This excerpt is very similar to the realization that Janine comes to at the end of “The Adulterous Woman”. As Janine is reflecting “[b]reathing deeply, she forgot the cold, the dead weight of others, the craziness or stuffness of life, the long anguish of living and dying”(121-122). Both Camus and Janine experience a shift in their mindset, finding hope in a new direction. While denying that life has an explicit meaning, Camus still seeks to find the intrinsic meaning of the self and this idea is reflected repeatedly in his work and when addressing the greater public. As an artist Camus sees and speaks to all other artists(those who are recognized and those who aren’t) that are in the same boat, experiencing the ups and downs of being an artists, and motivates them to look for internal meaning in their lives and the art they create.
With the context of having read and discussed “The Adulterous Woman” I entered the experience with a preconceived notion of Camus, that being understanding his philosphy as realistic, pessimistic, and accepting the absurdness of living. The speech added to my impression of the author and further proved that his ideas are timeless, because of the heavy inspiration Camus had on postmodernist philosophers and pop-culture. Camus does not question existence, rather he accepts the doom and dread and theorizes on how to live with the neverending melancholy. Camus provides all readers, writers, artists, and humans with motivation to look within oneself because the intrinsic meaning of the self is what defines one’s life.
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