Caligula (Camus)
Caligula is a drama by the French writer and philosopher Albert Camus about the Roman emperor of the same name .
Emergence
Camus began work on Caligula in 1938 after reading De vita Caesarum by Suetonius and finished a first version of the play in 1939. As he writes in his foreword to the German-language first edition from 1959, he wanted the play in his small theater in Algiers have performed and originally played the title role himself. The war meant that Caligula was not moved to Gallimard until May 1944 . In 1945 it was premiered at the Théâtre Hébertot in Paris with Gérard Philipe , Michel Bouquet and Georges Vitaly under the direction of Paul Œttly.
content
The play is divided into four acts. The young emperor, initially portrayed as harmless, becomes aware of the bad turn of the world through the death of his sister and lover Drusilla (“People are dying and they are not happy”) and then decides to strive for the impossible. With the aim of reversing and leveling all values, he uses his freedom and power to the full and with murderous consistency. Eventually he becomes aware of his error and he encourages his own murder.
reception
Caligula is often referred to as a philosophical piece in relation to Camus' philosophy of the absurd and is interpreted against this background. However, Camus himself distances himself from this reading in his foreword to the German-language first edition:
“ So Caligula is a tragedy of knowledge. And from that the conclusion was drawn with a beautiful naturalness that it was an intellectual drama. [...] I am looking in vain for the philosophy that is supposedly expressed in these four acts. "
Camus can see the only hint of philosophy in the quoted sentence "People die and they are not happy". However, this is "a truism familiar to all of mankind".
expenditure
- In: Dramas , translated into German by Guido G. Meister, Rowohlt Verlag, Hamburg 1959.
Web links
- Caligula theater of the absurd (Engl.) , Albert Camus Society