French Literature Reviews - 2026
A. Prouteau, Albert Camus or the Imperishable Present
Other Literary Studies
Anne Prouteau, Albert Camus or the Imperishable Present
Orizons, "Universities/Literary Domain" series, January 2009, 284 p.
series edited by Peter Schnyder
- ISBN : 978-2-296-04686-3
- 27 €
This study reveals a singularly central preoccupation with the present moment in Albert Camus's work. The writer was deeply marked by the people of Algiers, of whom he would say in Noces that they are "entirely cast into their present." Diagnosed with tuberculosis when he had just turned seventeen, he discovered the reverse side of life. The presence of death became familiar to him and taught him the value of time. Whatever form it takes and however diverse its representations, the reference to the present moment is striking from Camus's very first texts. Shot through with the motif of beginning, his work articulates a consciousness of the creative moment. To be sure, Camus is nostalgic for origins, but does this equate to a desire to return to the past? And what form can be invented to write the present, which is fleeting by its very nature?
"Starting from works where time was denied," Camus gradually rediscovers "the source of time." The creation of an "imperishable present" thus fulfills one of the core aims of his artistic endeavor: to rescue beings from death and oblivion.
Anne Prouteau is an Associate Professor of French Literature at the Université catholique de l'Ouest (Angers). A board member of the Société des Études Camusiennes, her research focuses primarily on Camus's corpus and contemporary literature.
This critical study by Anne Prouteau examines how the reference to the present moment shapes the artistic endeavor of Albert Camus from his earliest texts onward. Deeply influenced by his early life in Algiers and an early diagnosis of tuberculosis, Camus developed a heightened awareness of mortality that profoundly informed his relationship with time. Prouteau explores how the author navigates the tension between a nostalgia for origins and the necessity of capturing a fleeting reality, ultimately seeking to rescue human existence from oblivion through the creation of an imperishable present.
Ideal for students and scholars of twentieth-century French literature, this volume offers fresh perspectives on Camus's philosophy of creation and temporality. It addresses essential questions regarding how literary form can express the ephemeral nature of the present. Readers interested in modernist aesthetics, existential themes, and the broader intellectual traditions surrounding Camus will find this scholarly monograph a valuable resource for deepening their understanding of his literary corpus.