Entre o Cristo e o trágico – gênese cristã e Tέλος trágico no pensamento de Albert Camus

Abstract

The research focus, initially, in a thesis presentation regarding christianism by the young Albert Camus, entitled Christian Metaphysics and Neoplatonism. The research interprets the work as one of the first sources of the christian tradition assimilated by Camus, in addition, the research also pushes towards to demonstrate how themes of this thesis of the youth will punctually reappear in the mature work of the french-algerian writer, especially in the novel The Foreigner. Aiming to follow the thematic echoes of Christian Metaphysics and Neoplatonism in Albert Camus' mature work, specially highlighting The Foreigner, two themes discussed by the young Camus were underlined: evangelical pessimism and the concept of the modern tragic. We propose that both themes were punctually determined in the academic reading of the canonical gospel, which Camus accomplished in his youth. As out of the articulation between evangelical pessimism and the concept of the modern tragic, the research presented a theoretical reading of the evolution of tragic thought in Modernity and, in the end, highlighted the receptive presence of the tragic tradition in the camusian literature, which is frequently emphasized on the novel The Foreigner. Thus, the tragic thought, that marked the composition of camusian work, was presented under the revealing perspective of the indissoluble tragic contradiction between the man and the world. This reading of tragic thought, in terms of camusian reception, revealed itself in the form of an essential estrangement, literarily portrayed by the image of man's irreversible condition of foreigner in the world. Therefore, the research can add solidity to the premise that Albert Camus' literary creation reveals him to be heir to the tragic tradition. In this way, the theme of otherness, pointed out as a founding part of tragic thought, became elementary to understand the literary persona of the foreigner. Participating in the two traditions delimited by the research, the theme of otherness still followed, unfolding through the reasoning, shedding light on the camusian reception of the christian tradition, as well as the tradition of tragic thought. The research finishes along with the discovery of an existential project envisioned by Albert Camus and it is recognizable in the meantime of the analysis of The Foreigner. This project is summed up in the camusian glimpse of a proposition that focuses on the need for man to adapt to this irremediably tragic world. Finally, in addition to recognizing and unraveling one of the christian geneses of camusian literature, the research also revealed part of this strictly tragic teleological horizon that composes the thought of Albert Camus.