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In Our Time

Camus

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.69.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2008

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Algerian-French writer and Existentialist philosopher Albert Camus. Shortly after the new year of 1960, a powerful sports car crashed in the French town of Villeblevin in Burgundy, killing two of its occupants. One was the publisher Michel Gallimard; the other was the writer Albert Camus. In Camus’ pocket was an unused train ticket and in the boot of the car his unfinished autobiography The First Man. Camus was 46. Born in Algeria in 1913, Camus became a working class hero and icon of the French Resistance. His friendship with Sartre has been well documented, as has their falling out; and although Camus has been dubbed both an Absurdist and Existentialist philosopher, he denied he was even a philosopher at all, preferring to think of himself as a writer who expressed the realities of human existence. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, Camus’ legacy is a rich one, as an author of plays, novels and essays, and as a political thinker who desperately sought a peaceful solution to the War for Independence in his native Algeria. With Peter Dunwoodie, Professor of French Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London; David Walker, Professor of French at the University of Sheffield; Christina Howells, Professor of French at Wadham College, University of Oxford.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

0:04.7

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

0:08.5

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

0:18.0

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

0:24.6

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

0:29.7

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

0:36.0

Thanks for downloading the In Our Time Podcast.

0:39.0

For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co. UK

0:44.3

forward slash radio for. I hope you enjoy the program.

0:47.0

Hello shortly after the new year of 1960 a small family car crashed in the French town of Villevin in Burgundy

0:54.8

killing two of its occupants. One was the publisher Michelle Galemar, the other was

0:59.5

the writer Albert Camus. In Camus pocket was unused train ticket, and in the boot of the car his unfinished

1:05.6

autobiography, The First Man. Camue is 46 when his life was cut short, but had already worked

1:11.7

for the French Resistance resistance editing an underground

1:14.0

newspaper befriended and fallen out with Jean Paul Sardre written a series of brilliant books and

1:18.4

won the Nobel Prize for literature and although he's been dead for nearly 50 years

1:22.2

his ideas on the absurdity of life and the richness of his writing live on

1:25.8

Here to discuss our bec Camus one of those enigmatic, charismatic and talented writers of the 20th century are Peter Dunwoody, Professor of French Literature

1:34.8

at Goldsmiths, University of London, David Walker, Professor of French at the University of Sheffield,

1:40.4

and Christina Howe's, Professor of French at Waddham College, University of Oxford.

1:45.0

Peter Dunwoody, Camus was born in 1930 in Mondove in Algeria and brought him in Belcourt,

1:50.0

a poor district of the capital, Algiers. kind of upbringing did he had, and did it, as it were,

...

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