Wedding of light
Marriage of Light ( French Noces ) is a 1938 collection of autobiographical essays by the French writer and philosopher Albert Camus .
The text collection is closely linked to the L'Été collection published in 1954 , which contains essays written between 1939 and 1953. Later new editions therefore usually combine both books in one.
content
In the German first edition from 1954, the almost 70-page collection contains the four lyrical essayistic texts Wedding in Tipasa , The Wind in Djémila , Summer in Algiers and The Desert . In all of the texts, the young Camus - he wrote the texts 1936–1937 when he was around 23 - tells his personal impressions on the edge of the desert with impressive power of language , as the German subtitle suggests, and combines them with philosophical reflections.
Wedding in Tipasa
Camus describes a spring in the Algerian coastal town of Tipasa . With a very plastic, lively language he succeeds in capturing the abundance of sensory impressions, the light and the colors, the smells, the noises and the haptic experience of an overflowing nature and making them tangible for the reader. He is not interested in isolated nature, but traces the field of tension between nature and the experiencing, i.e. interpreting subject. Despite the sometimes enthusiastic tone of voice, nature is never seamlessly idealized or personified.
“The gods live in Tipasa in spring. They talk through the sun and through the scent of the wormwood bushes, through the silver cuirass of the sea, the bright blue sky, the flower-strewn ruins and the abundance of light from the rubble. At certain hours the land is black with the sun. The eyes try in vain to hold on more than the shining drops of color that tremble on the eyelashes. The bitter smell of the herbs scratches your throat and takes your breath away in the immense heat. "
As in the other texts, Camus combines the linguistic representation of his impressions with the exploration of their philosophical content. Hints of an existentialist philosophy and precursors of his philosophy of the absurd can already be found here .
The wind in Djémila
In The Wind in Djémila , Camus describes a visit to the ancient ruined city of Djémila . The text contrasts the preceding essay on Tipasa. While there he still discussed an overflowing life, he now devotes himself to decay and death. The philosophical reflection comes to the fore here more clearly than in the other essays, the language becomes more thoughtful. His idea of a "conscious death", which was later carried out in The Happy Death , finds its first formulation here when he writes:
“But I see Djemila and I know: the only real progress in culture that a person realizes for himself from time to time is: to die consciously. [...] To die consciously means: to narrow the gap between us and the world and to end it joylessly and in the knowledge that the glory of this world is forever over. "
Summer in Algiers
Here Camus describes life in the capital of Algeria, Algiers , and tries to track down the effects of the circumstances on people and their livelihoods without unreflectively identifying life and living conditions. Once again, according to Camus, the location on the Mediterranean is central to an understanding of the local lifestyle. Linguistically, this text approaches the first one, but remains a little more sober, more essayistic.
The desert
In the last essay in the collection, Camus recounts episodic memories from Italy, particularly Florence. In some places the life-affirming and freedom-demanding contempt for death and fate of the young Camus emerges very clearly, but at the same time he is fully aware of the absurdity that emerges.
“Alone at the pillar I felt like someone who is being grabbed by the throat and who confesses his faith with one last scream. Everything in me rebelled against such devotion to fate. 'You have to,' said the inscriptions. 'No,' I said, and my disagreement was right. [...] The grave tablets taught me that it would be pointless [...]. But even today I still don't see what the futility of my contradiction could do; but I do feel what it enriches him with. "
expenditure
- Wedding of light. Impressions on the edge of the desert , translated from the French by Peter Gan, Arche, Zurich 1954.
- Marriage of Light , translated from French by Peter Gan and Monique Lang, Arche Verlag, Hamburg - Zurich 2010. ISBN 978-3-7160-2634-2
- Marriage of Light , extended new edition, Arche Literatur Verlag, 2013. ISBN 978-3-7160-2706-6
Web links
- Lothar Struck: The possible beauty of the world , gloss & misery - magazine for literature and time criticism