'As others feel pain in their lungs': Albert Camus's The Plague. Issue 1 (2nd January 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Twidle, Hedley
• Is Part Of: English studies in Africa. Volume 64:Issue 1/2(2021)
• Page Start: 24
• Page End: 40
• Publication Date: 2021-01-02
• Subjects: Albert Camus -- Algeria -- illness and its metaphors; English literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; English language -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; English language -- Africa -- Periodicals; English literature -- Periodicals; American literature -- Periodicals; American literature; English language; English language -- Study and teaching; English literature; Africa; Criticism, interpretation, etc; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 420
• DOI: 10.1080/00138398.2021.1969094
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-8398

Abstract

Abstract : This is an account of reading Albert Camus's The Plague in the wake of various real-world epidemics, and from a place, South Africa, that emerges as a kind of mirror image of the north Africa in which the novel is set. It suggests that what seems at first like a simple story is in fact a deeply complex, even contradictory work: one that that absorbs and reflects back as much history and difficulty as the reader is willing to bring to it. While giving postcolonial critiques of the work their due, I explore how and why The Plague still holds energy and meaning for a 21 st -century audience.