Monday, September 24, 2007
Camus and Algeria
Edward Said, On Late Style:
I don’t think it is very wrong to say that in the twentieth century with very few exceptions great art in a colonial situation always appears in support of what Genet in Le captif amoureux calls the metaphysical uprising of the natives. The cause of Algeria produced Les paravents, Pontecorvo’s Battle of Algiers, Fanon’s books, the works of Kateb Yacine. Compared to these works, Camus pales, his novels, essays, and stories the desperate gestures of a frightened, finally ungenerous mind.
I don’t think it is very wrong to say that in the twentieth century with very few exceptions great art in a colonial situation always appears in support of what Genet in Le captif amoureux calls the metaphysical uprising of the natives. The cause of Algeria produced Les paravents, Pontecorvo’s Battle of Algiers, Fanon’s books, the works of Kateb Yacine. Compared to these works, Camus pales, his novels, essays, and stories the desperate gestures of a frightened, finally ungenerous mind.
# posted by Ellis : 8:57 AM
