Les aspirations d' Albert Camus a I'egard des Mediterraneens

Abstract

This paper takes a good look at the Mediterraneans in their environment, their qualities and defects. It analyses the triple influence of the sea, the land, and the climate on their characters and how their moral values are rooted in customs and traditions that also explain the ambivalence of their nature. Other factors to reckon with are the many contradictions brought about by overwhelming historical events that have often tested their resistance to the limit. Camus, proposes a new 'gospel' aimed at regenerating Mediterraneans along ancient lines, 'rejoindre les Crees ', and shaping them into models of future world citizens, in harmony with nature and open to pagan as to Christian influences. His kingdom remains intrinsically one of this world and hence denounces all types of 'messiahs '. But he upholds old myths and ends up preaching a new one, that of a d'Arrast in his long short story, 'La Pierre qui pousse ', planting the stone of a new covenant based on the principle of solidarity among men of good will, not in a church but in the midst of suffering humanity. In his staunch belief that man's salvation lies in his own hands therefore, Camus, following in Prometheus's footsteps demands the tools that could give Mediterraneans the mythical fire that guarantees justice and prosperity not only for themselves but also for the rest of mankind through social, economical, and political reforms.