A Consideration of Camus's The First Man as a Postcolonial Work

Abstract

Camus wrote The First Man last, but perhaps it should be read first. Using the facts of his own childhood in Algeria, Camus constructs the philosophy that he developed in his other works; namely, the idea that the individual exists in a solitary state, but is united with others by virtue of universal nature of this state. The work presents ideas which are not easily explainable within the tenets of postcolonial theory: the complexities of the French-Algerian political situation, the implications of language separated from history, the idea of the private self, and the positing of poverty as an overarching discourse are all elements not addressed. But it is Camus's universal vision of humanity, arising from oblivion and returning to oblivion, that most definitely puts the work outside the body of postcolonial literature.