Le vide dans le théâtre camusien

Abstract

This article is an analysis of two plays by a great French literature writer, Albert Camus: Caligula (1945) and Le Malentendu (The Misunderstanding, sometimes published as Cross Purpose, 1944). After a careful presentation of the plots of the play, we are proposing a definition of the following terms: the absence and the void. Afterwards, we examine the nature of the absences presented, and we offer a classification of such absences. We establish four categories of the void: philosophical, spiritual, physical, and the absence of the closest kin. A re-reading of the dramaturgical texts serves to appreciate the manner in which these texts are presented to the reader/spectator and to prove that the Camusian void is in a strict relation with an existential pain associated with the absence of God in people’s life.