From modern writers Camus has perhaps the most amazing fate. Very young, he became a living mirror of an entire generation. He was received so favorably that he received Nobel Prize at an age when others still dream of Goncourt.
What is the reason for such rare popularity? Apparently, the fact is that Camus was able to express the vague guesses of readers of the war and post-war years. He raised many questions that are important to everyone. Camus himself was constantly in a painful search for the general and particular truths of human existence, and in his novels, stories, dramas and essays he managed to convey the restless beating of his own thoughts. Written in a restrained, simple language, they excite with the severity and depth of the problems, the originality of the characters, and the sophistication of psychological analyses.
Albert Camus was born in northern Algeria on the outskirts of the town of Mondovi and was the second son of an agricultural day laborer. On his maternal side, he was descended from immigrants from Spain. The child was one year old when his father, wounded at the front, died in hospital. The family had to survive on a modest pension for their deceased father and on the pennies brought in by their mother, who worked as a daycare worker in rich houses. And it would hardly have been possible to complete my education if school teacher did not secure a scholarship for the boy at the respectable Algerian Lyceum.
A year before graduating from the Lyceum, Albert caught a cold during football match, fell ill with tuberculosis and spent almost a year in the hospital, on the verge of life and death. This had a strong influence on his way of thinking. As for health, the consequences of the disease affected throughout my life.
Then he studied at the University of Algiers, where the young man studied mainly philosophy (the topic graduation essay was the development of the Hellenistic mysticism of Plotinus into the Christian theology of St. Augustine). His reading range was wide and varied; his favorite writers included France, Gide and Martin du Gard. To feed himself, Camus had to constantly earn extra money.
But despite the lack of money, employment and illness, the young Camus was far from an ascetic gloomily withdrawn into work and worries. He is assertive, inventive, relaxed. Those who knew him recall the young man’s endurance in travel, his passionate attachment to sports, his wit in mischievous pranks, and his energy as an initiator of various undertakings. Even then, one of the most attractive features of Camus came to light - his stoic love of life.
In 1935, Camus organized the traveling Theater of Labor, where he tried his hand as a director, playwright and actor, and sometimes served as a prompter. His productions include plays by Aeschylus, " Stone Guest"Pushkin, a stage adaptation of Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov", Gorky's "At the Depths". He is a member of the Committee for Assistance to the International Cultural Movement against Fascism and heads the Algerian People's House of Culture. In the same years, Camus joined the Communist Party, but, not satisfied with the theory and practice of the movement, in 1937 he left it.
Then it begins literary activity Camus. The first book was a collection of short philosophical and literary essays, “The Inside Out and the Face” (1937). The author recalls his childhood years, when he “was halfway between the sun and poverty,” and describes student trips to Czechoslovakia, Austria and Italy. Most The book is pessimistic, which is associated with personal troubles during the trip: an exacerbation of the disease and a quarrel, and then a break with his wife.
When the left-wing newspaper Alger Republixn was founded in Algeria in 1938, Camus became its ever-present collaborator. But during the days of the “Phantom War,” the newspaper was closed, and Camus moved to Paris, where he got a job as an editorial secretary at the Paris-Soir newspaper. He persistently uses his free hours to work on several manuscripts at the same time.
The first of the planned series was completed (in May 1940) the story “The Outsider,” written in the form of notes from a man awaiting execution. As in all of Camus's works, central theme here is the search for the meaning of life, comprehension of the cornerstone truth of the world and one’s purpose in it. However, the publication of the story was delayed - in June 1940, the “strange war” ended with the defeat of France. Together with the editorial office of the newspaper, Camus first ended up in the south of the country, then he was fired from the editorial office for having too radical views, and he ended up in his native land, where his new wife, Francine Faure, was waiting for him. He taught for several months in Oran, the second largest city in Algeria. In the fall of 1941, the writer was again in the southern zone of France, where he was soon cut off by the war from his wife and relatives who remained in Algeria.
At the same time, Camus became involved in the work of the secret military organization “Comba” (“Battle”). He conducted intelligence activities for the partisans, and also collaborated in the illegal press, where in 1943-1944 his “Letters to a German Friend” were published - a philosophical and journalistic rebuke to attempts to justify fascism.
“The Myth of Sisyphus” has the subtitle “Discourse on the Absurd” - we're talking about about absurdity human life. Man is Sisyphus, says Camus, he is eternally condemned by the gods to roll a stone to the top of a mountain, from where it falls down again. Ancient myth under the pen of Camus, it is saturated with philosophical and literary excursions, primarily into the work of Dostoevsky, and becomes a detailed essay on the essence of existence. Life is absurd, but Sisyphus is aware of his destiny, and in this clarity is the guarantee of his victory.
The liberation of Paris in August 1944 put Camus at the head of the newspaper Combat. For some time he feeds on hopes for change, nurtured underground, and is engaged in political journalism, but reality sobers him up, and Camus does not find support in any of the doctrines of that period.
Meanwhile, his literary fame is growing. The play “Caligula” (1945) was a rare success, which was greatly facilitated by Gerard Philip, who made his debut in it. In Camus' understanding, the Roman emperor Caligula is a man who became a bloody despot not under the influence of passions and interests, but driven by ideas. “It is impossible to destroy everything without destroying yourself,” the author later clarified central idea dramas.
The next major work was the novel “The Plague” (1947). In it, the writer’s imagination created special circumstances that did not exist in reality: the plague epidemic in Oran. In the language of allegory, in brilliant literary form Camus again poses the fundamental problems of the time. A crisis that reveals the essence of all relationships. A man at the moment of his greatest trial. Man and death. Separation that tests the strength of attachments.
This was followed by the play “The Just” (1950) about Russian terrorist Socialist Revolutionaries. One of its central episodes is the meeting of Ivan Kalyaev with the wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who was killed by him. Can the right to violence be justified? - Camus asks himself and the audience.
Then came the treatise “The Rebel Man” (1951), conceived, according to critics, as a comparative analysis of rebellious consciousness over the last 2 centuries. By the will of Camus, among the rebels, Saint-Just and the Marquis de Sade turn out to be the forerunners of Hegel, Marx marches together with Nietzsche, and Nechaev paves the way for Lenin.
Camus gradually moved away from social and political life. He is increasingly attracted by the deep problems of human relations, and this is reflected in new works: journalism collected in 3 books of “Topical Notes” (1950, 1953, 1958), as well as lyrical essays in the book “Summer” (1954) about the days youth, the story “The Fall” (1954) and the collection of stories “Exile and the Kingdom” (1957). He returned to directing, staged plays based on stage adaptations of Faulkner (“Requiem for a Nun”) and Dostoevsky (“Demons”), and was thinking about his own theater.
A car accident ended Camus's life in its prime. From the briefcase he was carrying with him, an unfinished manuscript of the novel “First Man” was taken out. Camus called this book “the novel of his maturity,” his “War and Peace.”
At the beginning of his journey, Camus wrote down four conditions for happiness in his notebook: to be loved, to live in nature, to create, and to give up ambitious plans. He tried to follow this program and through his works managed to express the confused feelings of modern man.
Man is an unstable creature. He is characterized by a feeling of fear, hopelessness and despair. At least, this opinion was expressed by adherents of existentialism. Albert Camus was close to this philosophical teaching. The biography and creative path of the French writer is the topic of this article.
Childhood
Camus was born in 1913. His father was a native of Alsace, and his mother was Spanish. Albert Camus had very painful memories of his childhood. The biography of this writer is closely connected with his life. However, for every poet or prose writer, their own experiences serve as a source of inspiration. But in order to understand the reason for the depressive mood that reigns in the books of the author, which will be discussed in this article, you should learn a little about the main events of his childhood and adolescence.
Camus's father was a poor man. He did heavy physical labor at a wine company. His family was on the verge of disaster. But when a significant battle took place near the Marne River, the life of Camus the Elder’s wife and children became completely hopeless. The point is that this historical event, although it was crowned with the defeat of the enemy German army, had tragic consequences for the fate of the future writer. Camus's father died during the Battle of the Marne.
Left without a breadwinner, the family found itself on the brink of poverty. This period was reflected in his early work Albert Camus. The books “Marriage” and “Inside and Out” are dedicated to a childhood spent in poverty. In addition, during these years, young Camus suffered from tuberculosis. Unbearable conditions and a serious illness did not discourage the future writer from his desire for knowledge. After graduating from school, he entered the university to study philosophy.
Youth
The years of study at the University of Algiers had a huge impact on ideological position Camus. During this period, he became friends with the famous essayist Jean Grenier. It is in student years The first collection of stories was created, which was called “Islands”. For some time he was a member of the Communist Party of Albert Camus. His biography, however, is more connected with such names as Shestov, Kierkegaard and Heidegger. They belong to thinkers whose philosophy largely determined the main theme of Camus’s work.
Albert Camus was an extremely active person. His biography is rich. As a student, he played sports. Then, after graduating from university, he worked as a journalist and traveled a lot. The philosophy of Albert Camus was formed not only under the influence of contemporary thinkers. For some time he was interested in the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky. According to some reports, he even played in an amateur theater, where he had the opportunity to play the role of Ivan Karamazov. During the capture of Paris, at the beginning of the First World War, Camus was in the French capital. He was not taken to the front due to a serious illness. But even during this difficult period, quite active public and creative activity conducted by Albert Camus.
"Plague"
In 1941, the writer gave private lessons and took an active part in the activities of one of the underground Parisian organizations. At the beginning of the war its most famous work wrote Albert Camus. "The Plague" is a novel that was published in 1947. In it, the author reflected the events in Paris, occupied by German troops, in a complex symbolic form. Albert Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for this novel. Formulation - “For an important role literary works, which confront people with the problems of our time with penetrating seriousness.”
The plague begins suddenly. City residents are leaving their homes. But not all. There are townspeople who believe that the epidemic is nothing more than punishment from above. And you shouldn't run. You should be imbued with humility. One of the heroes - the pastor - is an ardent supporter of this position. But the death of an innocent boy forces him to reconsider his point of view.
People are trying to escape. And the plague suddenly recedes. But even after the worst days are over, the hero is haunted by the thought that the plague may return again. The epidemic in the novel symbolizes fascism, which killed millions of residents of Western and Eastern Europe during the war.
In order to understand what the main philosophical idea this writer, you should read one of his novels. In order to feel the mood that reigned in the first years of the war among thinking people, it is worth getting acquainted with the novel “The Plague,” which Albert wrote in 1941 from this work - the sayings of an outstanding philosopher of the 20th century. One of them is “In the midst of disasters, you get used to the truth, namely, to silence.”
Worldview
At the center of the French writer’s work is consideration of the absurdity of human existence. The only way to fight it, according to Camus, is to recognize it. The highest embodiment of the absurd is the attempt to improve society through violence, namely fascism and Stalinism. In the works of Camus there is a pessimistic confidence that evil is completely impossible to defeat. Violence begets more violence. And rebellion against him cannot lead to anything good at all. It is precisely this position of the author that can be felt while reading the novel “The Plague”.
"Stranger"
At the beginning of the war, Albert Camus wrote many essays and stories. It’s worth saying briefly about the story “The Outsider.” This work is quite difficult to understand. But it is precisely this that reflects the author’s opinion regarding the absurdity of human existence.
The story “The Stranger” is a kind of manifesto that Albert Camus proclaimed in his early work. Quotes from this work can hardly say anything. In the book, a special role is played by the monologue of the hero, who is monstrously impartial to everything that happens around him. “The condemned person is obliged to morally participate in the execution” - this phrase is perhaps the key.
The hero of the story is a person who is in some sense inferior. His main feature is indifference. He is indifferent to everything: to the death of his mother, to the grief of others, to his own moral decline. And only before death does his pathological indifference to the world around him leave him. And it is at this moment that the hero understands that he cannot escape the indifference of the world around him. He is sentenced to death for committing murder. And everything he dreams of last minutes life is not to see indifference in the eyes of people who will watch his death.
"Fall"
This story was published three years before the writer's death. The works of Albert Camus, as usual, belong to the philosophical genre. "The Fall" is no exception. In the story, the author creates a portrait of a man who is artistic symbol modern European society. The hero's name is Jean-Baptiste, which translated from French means John the Baptist. However, Camus's character has little in common with the biblical one.
In “The Fall” the author uses a technique characteristic of the impressionists. The narration is conducted in the form of a stream of consciousness. The hero talks about his life to his interlocutor. At the same time, he talks about the sins he committed without a shadow of regret. Jean-Baptiste personifies the selfishness and poverty of the inner spiritual world of Europeans, the writer’s contemporaries. According to Camus, they are not interested in anything other than achieving their own pleasure. The narrator periodically distracts himself from his life story, expressing his point of view regarding one or another philosophical issue. As in others works of art Albert Camus, in the center of the plot of the story “The Fall”, is a man of an unusual psychological make-up, which allows the author to reveal in a new way the eternal problems of existence.
After the war
In the late forties, Camus became an independent journalist. Social activities He ceased to participate in any political organizations forever. During this time he created several dramatic works. The most famous of them are “The Righteous”, “State of Siege”.
The theme of the rebellious personality in the literature of the 20th century was quite relevant. A person’s disagreement and his reluctance to live according to the laws of society is a problem that worried many authors in the sixties and seventies of the last century. One of the founders of this literary direction was Albert Camus. His books, written back in the early fifties, are imbued with a feeling of disharmony and a sense of despair. “Rebel Man” is a work that the writer dedicated to the study of human protest against the absurdity of existence.
If in his student years Camus was actively interested in the socialist idea, then in adulthood he became an opponent of the radical left. In his articles, he repeatedly raised the topic of violence and authoritarianism of the Soviet regime.
Death
In 1960, the writer died tragically. His life was cut short on the road from Provence to Paris. As a result of the car accident, Camus died instantly. In 2011, a version was put forward according to which the writer’s death was not an accident. The accident was allegedly staged by members of the Soviet secret service. However, this version was later refuted by Michel Onfray, the author of the writer’s biography.
The French writer and philosopher, close to existentialism, received the common name during his lifetime “The Conscience of the West”
Albert Camus was born November 7, 1913 in a French Algerian family in Algeria, on the San Pol farm near the town of Mondovi. His father, a wine cellar keeper, was mortally wounded at the Battle of Marly in 1914, and after his death his family faced serious financial difficulties.
In 1918, Albert began to visit primary school, which he graduated with honors in 1923. Then he studied at the Algerian Lyceum. In 1932-1937, Albert Camus studied at the University of Algiers, where he studied philosophy.
In 1934 he married Simone Iye (divorced in 1939), an extravagant nineteen-year-old girl who turned out to be a morphine addict.
He received a bachelor's degree in 1935 and a master's degree in philosophy in May 1936.
In 1936 he created the amateur “Theater of Labor” (French. Theater du Travail), renamed in 1937 the “Team Theater” (fr. Théâtre de l'Equipe). In particular, he organized the production of “The Brothers Karamazov” based on Dostoevsky, and played Ivan Karamazov. In 1936-1937 he traveled through France, Italy and other countries Central Europe. In 1937, the first collection of essays, “The Inside Out and the Face,” was published, and the following year the novel “Marriage” was published.
In 1936 he joined the Communist Party, from which he was expelled in 1937. In the same 1937 he published his first collection of essays, “The Inside Out and the Face.”
After the ban on Soir Republiken in January 1940, Camus and his future wife Francine Faure, a mathematician by training, moved to Oran, where they gave private lessons. Two months later we moved from Algeria to Paris.
In 1942, The Stranger was published, which brought popularity to the author, and in 1943, The Myth of Sisyphus. In 1943, he began publishing in the underground newspaper Komba, then became its editor. From the end of 1943 he began working at the Gallimard publishing house (he collaborated with it until the end of his life). During the war, he published “Letters to a German Friend” under a pseudonym (later published as a separate publication). In 1943 he met Sartre and participated in productions of his plays.
In 1944, Camus wrote the novel “The Plague,” in which fascism is the personification of violence and evil (it was published only in 1947).
50s are characterized by Camus’s conscious desire to remain independent, to avoid biases dictated solely by “party affiliation.” One of the consequences was disagreements with Jean Paul Sartre, a prominent representative of French existentialism. In 1951, an anarchist magazine published Albert Camus’s book “The Rebellious Man,” in which the author explores how a person struggles with the internal and external absurdity of his existence. The book was perceived as a rejection of socialist beliefs, a condemnation of totalitarianism and dictatorship, to which Camus also included communism. Diary entries indicate the writer’s regret about the strengthening of pro-Soviet sentiments in France, the political blindness of the left, who did not want to notice the crimes Soviet Union in Eastern European countries.
Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913 in Algeria, into the family of an agricultural worker. He was not even a year old when his father died in First World War. After the death of his father, Albert's mother suffered a stroke and became semi-mute. Camus' childhood was very difficult.
In 1923, Albert entered the Lyceum. He was a capable student and was actively involved in sports. However, after the young man fell ill with tuberculosis, he had to give up the sport.
After the Lyceum, the future writer entered the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Algiers. Camus had to work hard to be able to pay for his studies. In 1934, Albert Camus married Simone Iye. The wife turned out to be a morphine addict, and the marriage with her did not last long.
In 1936, the future writer received a master's degree in philosophy. Just after receiving his diploma, Camus experienced an exacerbation of tuberculosis. Because of this, he did not stay in graduate school.
To improve his health, Camus went on a trip to France. He outlined his impressions from the trip in his first book, “The Inside Out and the Face” (1937). In 1936, the writer began work on his first novel, “Happy Death.” This work was published only in 1971.
Camus very quickly gained a reputation as a major writer and intellectual. He not only wrote, but was also an actor, playwright, and director. In 1938, his second book, “Marriage,” was published. At this time, Camus was already living in France.
During the German occupation of France, the writer took an active part in the Resistance movement; he also worked in the underground newspaper “Battle”, which was published in Paris. In 1940, the story “The Stranger” was completed. This piercing work brought the writer world fame. Next came the philosophical essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” (1942). In 1945, the play “Caligula” was published. In 1947, the novel “The Plague” appeared.
Philosophy of Albert Camus
Camus was one of the most prominent representatives existentialism. His books convey the idea of the absurdity of human existence, which in any case will end in death. IN early works("Caligula", "The Stranger") the absurdity of life leads Camus to despair and immoralism, reminiscent of Nietzscheanism. But in “The Plague” and subsequent books the writer insists: the general tragic fate should generate in people a feeling of mutual compassion and solidarity. The goal of the individual is “to create meaning among the universal nonsense”, “to overcome the human lot, drawing from within oneself the strength that one previously sought outside.”
In the 1940s Camus became close friends with another prominent existentialist, Jean-Paul Sartre. However, due to serious ideological differences, the moderate humanist Camus broke with the communist radical Sartre. In 1951 a major philosophical essay Camus “The Rebel Man”, and in 1956 - the story “The Fall”.
In 1957, Albert Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize “for his enormous contribution to literature, highlighting the importance of human conscience.”
Shortly thereafter, his mother, born Catherine Sintes, an illiterate woman of Spanish descent, suffered a stroke that left her semi-mute. K.'s family moved to Algeria, to live with her disabled grandmother and uncle, and in order to feed the family, Catherine was forced to go to work as a maid. Despite his unusually difficult childhood, Albert did not withdraw into himself; he admired the amazing beauty of the North African coast, which did not fit in with the boy’s life of complete deprivation. Childhood impressions left a deep imprint on the soul of K. – a person and an artist.
His school teacher Louis Germain had a great influence on K., who, recognizing his student’s abilities, provided him with every possible support. With the help of Germain, Albert managed to enter the Lyceum in 1923, where his interest in learning was combined with young man with a passion for sports, especially boxing. However, in 1930, K. fell ill with tuberculosis, which forever deprived him of the opportunity to play sports. Despite his illness, the future writer had to change many professions in order to pay for his studies at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Algiers. In 1934, K. married Simone Iye, who turned out to be a morphine addict. They lived together for no more than a year, and in 1939 they officially divorced.
After completing his works on St. Augustine and the Greek philosopher Plotinus, K. received a master's degree in philosophy in 1936, but the academic career of the young scientist was hampered by another outbreak of tuberculosis, and K. did not remain in graduate school.
After leaving the university, K. takes a trip to the French Alps for medicinal purposes and finds himself in Europe for the first time. Impressions from traveling through Italy, Spain, Czechoslovakia and France made up the writer’s first published book, “The Inside and the Face” (“L" Envers et 1 “endroit”, 1937), a collection of essays that also included memories of his mother, grandmother, and uncle. In 1936, K. began work on his first novel, “Happy Death” (“La Mort heureuse”), which was published only in 1971.
Meanwhile, in Algeria, K. was already considered a leading writer and intellectual. Theater activities(K. was an actor, playwright, director) he combines these years with work in the newspaper “Republican Algeria” (“Alger Republicain”) as a political reporter, book reviewer and editor. A year after the publication of the writer’s second book, “Marriage” (“Noces”, 1938), K. moved to France forever.
During the German occupation of France, K. took an active part in the Resistance movement, collaborating in the underground newspaper “The Battle” (“Le Comat”), published in Paris. Along with this activity, fraught with serious danger, K. is working on completing the story “The Outsider” (“L" Etranger, 1942), which he began in Algeria and which brought him international fame. The story is an analysis of alienation, the meaninglessness of human existence. Hero story - a certain Meursault, who was destined to become a symbol of an existential anti-hero, refuses to adhere to the conventions of bourgeois morality For the “absurd” murder he committed, that is, devoid of any motives, Meursault is sentenced to death - the hero K. dies, because he does not share generally accepted norms. behavior. The dry, detached style of narration (which, according to some critics, makes K. similar to Hemingway) further emphasizes the horror of what is happening.
The Stranger, which was a huge success, was followed by the philosophical essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” (“Le Mythe de Sisyphe”, 1942), where the author compares the absurdity of human existence with the work of the mythical Sisyphus, doomed to wage a constant struggle against forces with which he cannot cope with. Rejecting the Christian idea of salvation and the afterlife, which gives meaning to man’s “Sisyphean labor,” K. paradoxically finds meaning in the struggle itself. Salvation, according to K., lies in daily work, the meaning of life is in activity.
After the end of the war, K. continued to work for some time at the Battle, which now became the official daily newspaper. However, political disagreements between the right and left forced K., who considered himself an independent radical, to leave the newspaper in 1947. In the same year, the writer’s third novel, “The Plague” (“La Reste”), the story of a plague epidemic in the Algerian city of Oran, was published; V figuratively However, "The Plague" is the Nazi occupation of France and, more broadly, a symbol of death and evil. “Caligula” (1945), the writer’s best play, according to the unanimous opinion of critics, is also dedicated to the theme of universal evil. Caligula, which is based on Suetonius's book On the Lives of the Twelve Caesars, is considered a significant milestone in the history of the theater of the absurd.
As one of the leading figures in the post-war French literature, K. at this time became close to Jean Paul Sartre. At the same time, the ways of overcoming the absurdity of existence between Sartre and K. do not coincide, and in the early 50s. as a result of serious ideological differences, K. breaks with Sartre and with existentialism, the leader of which Sartre was considered. In “The Rebel Man” (“L"Homme revolte”, 1951), K. examines the theory and practice of protest against power over the centuries, criticizing dictatorial ideologies, including communism and other forms of totalitarianism, which encroach on freedom and, therefore, human dignity. Although back in 1945 K. said that he “had too few points of contact with the now fashionable philosophy of existentialism, the conclusions of which are false,” it was the denial of Marxism that led to K.’s break with the pro-Marxist Sartre.
In the 50s K. continues to write essays, plays, and prose. In 1956, the writer published the ironic story “The Fall” (“La Chute”), in which the repentant judge Jean Baptiste Clamence admits to his crimes against morality. Turning to the theme of guilt and repentance, K. makes extensive use of Christian symbolism in “The Fall.”
In 1957, K. was awarded the Nobel Prize “for his enormous contribution to literature, highlighting the importance of human conscience.” Handing French writer award, Anders Oesterling, a representative of the Swedish Academy, noted that “ philosophical views K. were born in an acute contradiction between the acceptance of earthly existence and the awareness of the reality of death.” In his response, K. said that his work is based on the desire to “avoid outright lies and resist oppression.”
When K. received the Nobel Prize, he was only 44 years old and, according to him in my own words, has reached creative maturity; the writer had extensive creative plans, as evidenced by notes in notebooks and memories of friends. However, these plans were not destined to come true: at the beginning of 1960, the writer died in a car accident in the south of France.
Although K.'s work caused lively controversy after his death, many critics consider him one of the most significant figures of his time. K. showed the alienation and disappointment of the post-war generation, but stubbornly sought a way out of the absurdity of modern existence. The writer was sharply criticized for his rejection of Marxism and Christianity, but nevertheless his influence on modern literature there is no doubt. In an obituary published in the Italian newspaper “Evening Courier” (“Corriere della sera”), the Italian poet Eugenio Montale wrote that “K.’s nihilism does not exclude hope, does not free a person from solving a difficult problem: how to live and die with dignity.”
According to the American researcher Susan Sontag, “K.’s prose is devoted not so much to his heroes as to the problems of guilt and innocence, responsibility and nihilistic indifference.” Believing that K.’s work “is not different high art, nor the depth of thought,” Sontag declares that “his works are distinguished by a beauty of a completely different kind, a moral beauty.” The English critic A. Alvarez shares the same opinion, calling K. “a moralist who managed to raise ethical problems to philosophical ones.”
