Abstract

THE UNITY OF THOUGHT AND LIFE. ROUSSEAU OR CAMUS? Theoretical speculations can hardly be expected to gain popularity or have a wider impact if they are not rooted in or confirmed by praxis. It is in the context of this problem that Maria Tyl discusses Jean Jacques Rousseau’s idea of returning to the state of nature (as presented primarily in his Confessions and Emile), referring at the same time to the work of Albert Camus (his novel The Stranger as well as the essays included in the collection Summer). Analyzing the relationship between fiction and life, Tyl writes parallel biographies of Emile-Mersault and Rousseau-Camus, and considers why primal naturalness is so elusive, if not altogether beyond civilized man’s reach.