Albert Camus as Political Thinker: Nihilisms and the Politics of Contempt

This intense 'genealogical' reconstruction of Albert Camus's political thinking challenges the philosophical import of his writings as providing an alternative, 'aesthetic' way of thinking political action outside and against the nihilistic categories of modern political philosophy. Samantha Novello focuses on the problem of radical nihilism as a crucial political question and the red thread of Camus's reflection from his early works to his speech for acceptance upon the Award of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Based on the most rigorous and updated edition of his complete works in the new Bibliothèque de la Pléiade (Gallimard), the book discusses all the key concepts of Camus's thinking, including the absurd, revolt, and freedom, in the light of contemporary political theory and as part of his personal/original 'aesthetic' point of view on twentieth-century politics of contempt and terrorisms.