Layers of meaning in <i>La Peste</i>

Gray, Margaret E.; Hughes, Edward

doi:10.1017/ccol0521840481.013

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In the novel we find a form of collective revolt captured in the form of a chronicle, but also the loneliness of the characters. It is the motive of loneliness that is one of the debatable characteristics of The Plague (Gray 2007 , 165). Even in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, we encounter stories of doctors and nurses who are separated from their families.…”

Section: Directions For Further Research In Existential Management Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

Albert Camus and Management: Opening the Discussion on the Contributions of his Work

Müller

2021

Philosophy of Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article responds to a call from Philosophy of Management (Vandekerckhove 2020) to open a discussion on the contribution of Albert Camus's work to management. The aim of this article is to argue that Camus's sense of cyclicality related to the recurrence of crises is particularly important for existential management. This idea is embodied primarily by Camus's famous retelling of the myth of Sisyphus, which is not only a provocative metaphor of his thoughts, as discussed by many authors, but is also an inspiring expression of the idea of revolt, which is further developed in Camus's later work. The article focuses on recent updates to Camus's Sisyphean revolt in existentially oriented approaches to management. These are mainly the concepts of the existential manager, an analysis of managerial lived experience within existential hermeneutic phenomenology, and the perspective of an absurd organization. Camus's motif of cyclicality represents a stimulating framework for analysing lived managerial experience, which is characterized by alternating phases of success and failure. The article also draws attention to other important motives in Camus's work, such as avoiding extremes and idealistic constructs, and expressing the value of human life as a basis for ethical behaviour. All the mentioned motives are closely related to the concept of revolt. This article also provides several explanatory comments on the editorial, which help to take a closer look at Camus's style of thinking and avoid possible misinterpretations. In this respect, the distinction between Camus's approach and forms of existentialism is particularly important.

show abstract

Section: Directions For Further Research In Existential Management Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

Albert Camus and Management: Opening the Discussion on the Contributions of his Work

Müller

2021

Philosophy of Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

No One is an Island at a Time of Pandemic

Zimmermann

Morgan

2021

Peace Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee''. (Donne [1624] 1987)The COVID-19 pandemic has focused attention on global health, ecology, economics, common welfare, and solidarity. Since March 11, 2020, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 as a pandemic, the global population has faced locks-down. This has stimulated debate about public policy and the need for international co-operation. It has also stimulated personal reflections on what it means to be human. Drawing upon creative literature, we consider the ethical issues raised by social distancing and quarantine. A fundamental ethical question is how responsibility for the care of others is accepted and maintained, by those in retreat and outside; and how dialogue is maintained between them. We draw philosophically from the concept of dialogue and from the ethics of care.At its best, literature considers the ethical and moral issues of human social life, the deeply personal, and those in common. Writers have developed an imaginative understanding of the pathological conditions of plague, epidemic, and pandemic; how people respond, individually, as families, and as communities, when in isolation; and through accepting or refusing responsibility for others. The Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes says that creative literature questions reality through appealing to the imagination and encourages the reader to explore the persistent human dilemmas. In Occidental literature alone, there are classic texts, such as our epigraph from John Donne, an eighteenth-century English Metaphysical poet. Again, Albert Camus' novel The Plague, that drew upon Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year, considers ethical questions of solidarity and care for others raised by a crisis of disease and quarantine. Its epigraph from Robinson Crusoe, also by Daniel Defoe, considers solitude and separation. Camus' novel describes the experience of Oran, a coastal city in what was then French colonial Algeria when afflicted by bubonic plague. In the company of a narrator, Dr. Rieux, the reader

show abstract

Introduction

Weiser¹

2023

Camus's the Plague

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Introduction provides a historical and literary context for the examination of Albert Camus’s 1947 fictional novel, The Plague, to suggest its relevance to our own lived experiences of the 2021 Covid-19 pandemic that brought the routines and expectations of our normal, daily lives to an unprecedented halt. Details of Camus’s life and work inform our reading of the narrative that give rise to multiple interpretations as well as intriguing questions of scholarly inquiry: How realistic are the characters? Does solidarity eventually triumph over isolation? Does the popular novel inspire social change or fail in its aspirations? Facing the absurdity of a similarly unwelcome and unpredictable disease, have we managed our fear of death more successfully than the citizens of Oran? An overview of authors’ contributions sets the stage for new and unique perspectives: an invitation for readers to reflect upon our communal experience of immense grief.

show abstract

Layers of meaning in La Peste

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Albert Camus and Management: Opening the Discussion on the Contributions of his Work

Albert Camus and Management: Opening the Discussion on the Contributions of his Work

No One is an Island at a Time of Pandemic

Introduction

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About