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PublisherThe University of Arizona.
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AbstractThis dissertation catalogues and examines Albert Camus's thematic repetitiveness as seen in his fiction and in how this repetitiveness relates to the world view presented in the so-called guillotine passage in his novel The Plague: that the world consists of scourges, victims, and an elusive third domain. A scourge can be an aggressor. It causes suffering and even death. The plague and other infirmities, both physical and mental, are aggressors. They are indiscriminate, merciless, and oftentimes deadly. Tyrants, too, are aggressors, some of which cling to the arbitrary, while others have a considerably more formal agenda. An aggressor can be metaphysical: the inner plague. Some aggressors, Like poverty and the climate, can also have a positive side to them. A scourge can also be an aggression--what the aggressor causes. They usually cannot be justified (existential separation, death, murder, execution, suicide), but some aggressions lead to enlightenment or positive change (exile, imprisonment, separation from loved ones). Yet one aggression, solitude of a certain kind, can actually be a desired and pleasant experience. Victims are the second domain. Camus focuses primarily on children, artists, clergy, judges and lawyers. The first three groups are presented in a balanced fashion, with emphasis on both the positive and the negative. Judges and lawyers are presented in a negative light, with only slight deviations. The third domain consists of true doctors (true friends) and peace/happiness, with true doctors--who are not necessarily doctors--contributing to the attainment of happiness or at least an improvement in circumstances. Light, the sea, other aspects of nature and sensual pleasures can also contribute to finding peace/happiness.
Degree ProgramGraduate College
French and Italian