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  billowyclouds18 декабря 2021 г.

  Camus as Soft Imperialist

  Camus claims that the purpose of his work is to strike a middle ground between Arab nationalists and French chauvinists. Does he succeed, or does he simply become a softer apologist for French imperialism?
  I think that although his work brought up a big number of controversies and debates, Albert Camus did in fact succeed at positioning himself in the middle ground. While reading Algerian Chronicles, we should bear in mind that he himself was born in Algeria and lived there until he was about 30, when he moved to France. He still constantly paid short visits to his homeland and most of his relatives still did live in Algeria. I believe he considered Algeria to be his hometown.
  From my point of view, the main idea in this collection of essays, which Camus keeps repeating is that he is against violence of any kind, both from the French colonialists and the Algerian nationalists' sides. He "condemns" this violence, as he believes that it does no good to any side, and he fears that the fight for independence would kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people, which in fact did happen, as the Algerians' fight for independence was really violent.
  Another fact that shows him taking the middle ground is that he believed that Algeria was an independent part of France. He knows that there are so many problems in Algeria, such as unemployment, illiteracy and food deficiency. He hopes that those problems could be solved if Algeria remains supported by France. He however knows that this is not what France is doing. He states that he wants to "remind people in France of the fact that Algeria exists", and that it exists independently, that it is not just another colony. He states that it has its own problems, peculiar and unique to Algeria and that France should do work to help Algeria. He might have fared that after getting independence, Algeria won't be able to solve its problems on its own

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