The woman had to fall? Jean-Baptiste Clamence and the literary infection by evil

• Main Author: Maciej Kałuża
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lodz University Press 2020-12-01
• Series: Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Polonica
• Subjects: evil; literature and philosophy; Camus; The Fall
• Online Access: https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/polonica/article/view/6239

The article presents the concept of evil, as developed in the literary as well as philosophical works of Albert Camus. After a short, preliminary notice on the relationship between literature and evil, the article presents two spheres, in which the problem of evil was grasped by the author of The Rebel. In the main part of the article, the complexity of the problem of evil, as represented by Jean-Baptiste Clamence from The Fall is shown. It is seen as a development of the concept of evil from The Plague, with the potency to disseminate onto others. It is also perceived, as something resulting from severe trauma of the main character. In conclusion, I claim, that the problem of evil, as experienced by Clamence may be understood as a still relevant metaphor of contemporary culture, struggling with passivity against the rise of social evil.