Sartre and Camus: "Les Mouches" and "Le Malentendu" : Parallel Plays

O'Donohoe, Benedict (2007) Sartre and Camus: "Les Mouches" and "Le Malentendu" : Parallel Plays. Sartre Studies International, 13 (2). pp. 113-25. ISSN 13571559

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Abstract

Sartre's Resistance myth, The Flies (1943), and Camus's contemporaneous modern tragedy, The Misunderstanding (1944), show remarkable similarities in conception, composition, themes, characters, relationships and intrigue. However, from the moment when the plots converge—each protagonist choosing to remain in his precarious new situation—they also diverge diametrically: Camus's Jan is doomed to reified passivity and death; Sartre's Oreste is galvanised into decisive action and new life. Does Camus's orientation toward nihilistic despair translate a negative assessment of his war-time role as an intellectual, and Sartre's much more positive disposition equally represent his affirmation of writing as a valid resistance activity?

Item Type: Article
Schools and Departments: School of English > Sussex Centre for Language Studies
Depositing User: Benedict O'Donohoe
Date Deposited: 06 Feb 2012 19:03
Last Modified: 30 Jul 2012 10:02
URI: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/19097
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