Research article
The Specter of Narration and Hypocrisy in Albert Camus The Fall
KeywordsCamus, existentialism, hypocrisy, laughter, narration, The Fall
Article content
Abstract
In this paper, I explored what Sartre referred to as Camus most beautiful and least understood novel, The Fall. As a methodology, I applied textual hermeneutics to immerse in the text and got out of it what I deemed as the crux of its existentialism as founded in the two-in-one leitmotif of narration and hypocrisy. In Clamence, there was a profound need − a specter that lingered and haunted − to narrate his life, especially the fall that triggered it and the judgment that allowed him to do it. I argued then that the nature of the text reflected a deep sense of narration that stemmed from hypocrisy, in which Clamence branded himself as judge-penitent − what such a life entails, how it freed him, and how it mirrored life-callings or vocations in all walks of life.
