A Writer's Topography: Space and Place in the Life and Works of Albert Camus (Faux Titre, 406)

A Writer’s Topography examines French-Algerian Nobel Prize laureate Albert Camus’s intimate yet often unsettled relationship with natural and human landscapes. Much like the Greek hero Sisyphus about whom he wrote his famous philosophical essay, Camus sustained a deep awareness of and appreciation for what he termed le visage de ce monde―the face of this earth. This wide-ranging collection of essays by Camus scholars from around the world demonstrates to what extent topography is omnipresent in Camus’s life and works. Configurations and contemplations of landscape figure prominently in his fictional works on both a literal and figurative level―from the earliest writings of his youth to his final, unfinished novel, Le Premier Homme. Furthermore, as a core component of the way in which Camus perceived, conceived and expressed the human condition, topography constitutes an over-arching and particularly profound dimension of his personal, public and philosophical thought.

Jason Herbeck is Professor of French at Boise State University (Idaho, USA). In addition to publications devoted to the literatures and histories of Haiti, Martinique and Guadeloupe, he has authored numerous articles and book chapters on Albert Camus. He is also President of the North American Section of the Société des Études Camusiennes.

Vincent Grégoire is « Nichols Professor of French » at Berry College (Georgia, USA). Author of L’Absence et le détail dans l’œuvre romanesque d’Albert Camus (2003) and of numerous articles on Camus, he publishes also in the field of Seventeenth-Century French Studies.