Description
Book SynopsisCritics, theologians, philosophers, and psychoanalysts have written several thousand books, theses, and articles about Camus' fiction. His first published novel, L'Etranger, had a unique impact on a whole generation of readers, and is other fiction, although not as well known, has also been influential. However, Camus' fiction so far has not been judged by contemporary critical methods, and 'inter-textuality,' or the study of the interrelationship between Camus' own texts, has not been examined.
The Narcissistic Text: A Reading of Camus' Fiction is the first book devoted to the whole of Camus' fiction to adopt this approach. Brian Fitch uses the critical tools elaborated in the writings of such French formalists as Barthes, Ricardou, and Todorov and draws upon the hermeneutic theory of literature developed by Gadamer and Ricoeur. As a result, the self-generating word-play or linguistic narcissism of 'Jonas' and the textual narcissism of La Peste are seen to give way,
