Meeting the Absurd: Camus and the Communication Ethics of the Everyday Brent Sleasman
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Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fall 2007 Meeting the Absurd: Camus and the Communication Ethics of the Everyday Brent Sleasman Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Recommended Citation Sleasman, B. (2007). Meeting the Absurd: Camus and the Communication Ethics of the Everyday (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/1206 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MEETING THE ABSURD: CAMUS AND THE COMMUNICATION ETHICS OF THE EVERYDAY A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Communication & Rhetorical Studies McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Brent C. Sleasman December 2007 Meeting the Absurd Copyright by Brent C. Sleasman 2007 Meeting the Absurd: Camus and the Communication Ethics of the Everyday By Brent C. Sleasman Approved August 24, 2007 _____________________________________________________ APPROVED Ronald C. Arnett. Dissertation Director Chair and Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies _____________________________________________________ APPROVED Janie Harden Fritz, Ph.D. Reader Associate Professor, Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies _____________________________________________________ APPROVED Kathleen Glenister Roberts, Ph.D. Reader Assistant Professor, Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies _____________________________________________________ APPROVED Albert C. Labriola, Ph.D., Acting Dean McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts iii Meeting the Absurd ABSTRACT MEETING THE ABSURD: CAMUS AND THE COMMUNICATION ETHICS OF THE EVERYDAY By Brent C. Sleasman December 2007 Dissertation Supervised by Dr. Ronald C. Arnett The metaphor of the absurd, as well as the work and thought of Albert Camus, has primarily served as a secondary resource within the communication discipline. This project contributes to the conversation about the absurd in an effort to further the study of communication ethics by placing Camus in the foreground. The metaphor of the absurd provides an opportunity to examine philosophical hermeneutics in relation to Camus’s insights. The work of Paul Ricoeur and Hans-Georg Gadamer, emphasizing the role of metaphor and how it connects the absurd as used by Camus to our current postmodern moment, provides the methodological framework for this project. While many differences exist between the historical moment of Camus and the contemporary postmodern moment, both represent a time in which there is no longer paradigmatic certainty. iv Meeting the Absurd Through an exploration of Camus’s three cycles of work addressing absurdity, revolt, and judgment, this project firmly places Camus’s engagement within the context of the study of communication ethics. Through his implicit work as a philosopher of communication Camus provided an example of a person with deep ethical commitments who navigated through the chaos of a moment of metanarrative decline. In our own moment of narrative and virtue contention, Camus’s voice should again be heard as we seek to take communicative responsibility in an age of absurdity. v Meeting the Absurd ACKNOWLEDGMENT While it is impossible to thank everyone who has contributed to the ideas revealed in the following pages, I wish to express my thanks to a special few who have contributed their own energy to the completion of this dissertation. Cindy Burke: While my questions and concerns represent only a very small portion of your position, you have always assisted in such a way that led me to believe I was your one and only priority. Thank you. Annette Holba: Your insights have been both challenging and invigorating. Thank you for your time and friendship. Eric Grabowsky: Our conversations are always insightful and enjoyable. Thank you for the phone calls, emails, but most of all, your friendship. Dr. Calvin Troup: From our initial conversation about the Rhetoric Ph.D. program through the current moment, you have provided a wealth of academic, personal, and professional guidance. Thank you for the inspiration that you have provided for so many students, myself included. Dr. Janie Harden Fritz & Dr. Kathleen Glenister Roberts: As members of my dissertation committee you have provided guidance and insight into this project. As faculty members your classes have both challenged and stretched my understanding of the discipline of communication. Thank you. Dr. Ronald C. Arnett: Words alone cannot express my thanks. Therefore, in lieu of a “thank you” I can simply say that I will do my best to follow the high standard of hard work and engaging scholarship that you have provided. You are my academic hero. vi Meeting the Absurd And finally…To Zoe Grace: Little did we know the significance of a name that means “life.” You fill our home with laughter, joy, and a zest for life we could never experience without you. Julie: You are part of every page that is written. Thank you for your patience and support. vii Meeting the Absurd TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract . iv Acknowledgment . .vi 1 Meeting the Absurd: Camus and the Communication Ethics of the Everyday 1 2 Meeting the Absurd: Recognition 33 3 Meeting the Absurd: Response 77 4 Meeting the Absurd: Acknowledgement of Consequences 122 5 The Communication Ethics Turn Toward Responsibility 154 Works Cited 191 viii Meeting the Absurd 1 Chapter One Meeting the Absurd: Camus and the Communication Ethics of the Everyday “Of the few scholars still interested in Camus, most esteem his literary genius but denigrate his importance as a philosopher” (Golomb 268). “If one could say just once: ‘This is clear,’ all would be saved” (Camus, “The Myth of Sisyphus” 27). Absurdity, for Albert Camus, represented “the conclusion arrived at by those who had assumed the possibility of a total explanation of existence by the mind who discover instead an unabridged gulf between rationality and experience” (Cruickshank 49). Out of this tension between the way one desires the world to appear and the harsh truth of human existence emerges the metaphor of the absurd. The metaphor of the absurd is not exclusively found within the domain of philosophy since it is deeply tied to one’s lived experience. But the reverse is true as well; absurdity is not merely a metaphor concerned with human existence having no philosophical justification. The interest that Albert Camus held in the idea of the absurd is not surprising since he was both a philosopher and a participant in the ongoing communicative tensions within his own culture resulting from his role in the French Resistance during World War II, along with his work as a journalist, playwright, and novelist. This interaction between Albert Camus, the Meeting the Absurd 2 metaphor of the absurd, the philosophy of communication, and communication ethics provides the framework for the central question guiding the research of this dissertation: “How can Albert Camus’s use of the metaphor of the absurd assist a human communicator in engaging the historical moment from an existential ethical perspective in a time of narrative and virtue contention?” Introduction The metaphor of the absurd emerges out of the interplay of philosophy and the ethical communicative practices embodied by Camus, supporting the notion that he can serve as a model of a philosopher of communication for our postmodern age. For the purposes of this dissertation, “absurdity” can be considered as a background concern while “the absurd” is an issue that is faced in a given moment. During a time of intense involvement with the French Resistance throughout the German occupation of France during World War II, Camus worked as a journalist for an underground newspaper called Combat . Through his writings for this paper, Camus continually demonstrated his commitment to the communicative practices necessary to navigate the absurdity of everyday life in order to make an ethical difference. Camus demonstrated his commitment to engaging his moment from a philosophical perspective through the writing of the essays “The Myth of Sisyphus” and The Rebel , his novels The Stranger , The Plague , The Fall , A Happy Death , and The First Man , and his plays “Caligula”, “The Misunderstanding”, and “The Just Assassins.” Following the liberation of Paris by the Allied forces, Camus provided evidence of his commitment to ethical practice when he wrote on September 4, 1944, as he shared his vision for post-war France, “[T]he affairs of this country should be managed by those who paid and answered for it. In other Meeting the Absurd 3 words, we are determined to replace politics with morality. That is what we call a revolution” (“Morality” 28). As opposed to falling into despair and failing to act, Camus believed revolt represented an appropriate response to absurd circumstances. The overwhelming burden that Camus felt for the future of post-war France did not immobilize him, leaving him incapable of making a decision about how to act in a given moment. Instead, he allowed the tensions of the moment to propel him to productivity, engaging his moment through a variety of communicative exchanges. Camus sought the freedom to respond to the moment