Camus L'ecrivain Naissant Face à la Censure Allemande

Abstract

Albert Camus published both his famous novel L'Etranger and his philosophical treaty Le Mythe de Sisyphe in Paris during the German occupation in 1942. Why did he decide to publish them in occupied France and not in Algiers, where he published his first books? How did he win the favor of Lieutenant Gerhard Heller, the German officer in charge of the Propaganda-Staffel, who did his best to make the publication of L'Etranger possible? Further, why did Camus agree to allow his editor, Gaston Gallimard, to remove his study of the Jewish writer Franz Kafka from Le Mythe de Sisyphe? Did he go too far in this moral compromise? Finally, how was he able to publish two other works, Caligula and Le Malentendu, in May 1944, when Caligula in particular can be read as a denunciation of totalitarianism and the criticism of a mad leader?

Keywords:

• Caligula
• Albert Camus
• L'Etranger
• Gaston Gallimard
• Gerhard Heller
• German occupation
• moral compromise
• Le Mythe de Sisyphe
• Propaganda-Staffel