Quaderni IRCrES-CNR, (2018) vol. 3, n. 3 cap. 3

Camus e il Mediterraneo. Un desiderio di osmosi

Camus and the Mediterranean Sea. A desire for osmosis

Yvonne Fracassetti

Professore di Lingua e Letteratura francese, autore di libri sulle società e le culture del Mediterraneo
corresponding author: yvonne.brondino@hotmail.it

Abstract

This paper attempts to a new reading of Albert Camus’ works searching for his particular Mediterranean sensibility and thinking. This may contribute to a reinterpretation of the actual crisis of Western Culture and Civilization, today fallen in the vortex of globalization. Albert Camus shared with other Mediterranean thinkers a loving conception of the world, which leads to an inversion of the rational approach to knowledge: much more than simply stimuli, sensorial perception is now considered as having prominence over thought. The general goal is to show that this intellectual sensitivity, stressed in the Mediterranean experience, can be assessed as a protection from the plagues and horrors that have haunted the 20th century: the arrogance of reason, the oppression of History and of the ideologies at the roots of totalitarianism and fanaticism. In the light of the actual lacerations in the Mediterranean societies, and if we want to secure a future for the next generations, the return of an intellectual sensibility centered in love and solidarity as the engines of human history is no longer utopian, but a sheer necessity.

Keywords: Albert Camus, freedom, history, happiness, intellectual sensitivity, knowledge, love, Mediterranean thought, nature, reason.

DOI: 10.23760/2499-6661.2018.011

How to Cite this Article

Fracassetti Yvonne, 2018. “Camus e il Mediterraneo. Un desiderio di osmosi”, in Emina A. (a cura di), Narrazioni dal Secolo Breve. Ripensare il Mediterraneo, Quaderni IRCrES-CNR, vol. 3, n. 3, pp. 35-44, http://dx.doi.org/10.23760/2499-6661.2018.011