Abstract

Samantha Novello

‘Tragedy and Aesthetic Politics: Rethinking the Political beyond Nihilism in the work of Albert Camus’

Insisting in 1992 on the contribution of Albert Camus’ moral and political reflection “to our historical understanding, and to our ability to rethink the imagery appropriate to our politics at the dawn of the twenty-first century”, Jeffrey Isaac drew the attention to an “unfinished project”, which emerges in the work of the French author. Focusing on his essays, articles and plays between 1942 and 1957, the aim of this paper is to challenge the meaning of this unfinished project, and its viability in the contemporary political situation, by exploring the relation between nihilism and tragedy in Camus’ work.
I argue that in the French author’s reflection tragedy offers the categories to re-think a certain kind of political action beyond the tabula rasa of politics, which he experienced through totalitarian terror. With Gianni Vattimo, I intend to show how Camus’ constant concern with, and inquiry into the different meanings of nihilism, developed through a life-long dialogue with the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche, goes toward the formulation of an “aesthetic paradigm” of political action, as opposed to the Historicist paradigm, embodied by 19th century philosophies of History and culminating in Communism, on the one hand; and to the bio-political paradigm, that emerged from the breakdown of Western tradition, which can be still seen as characterizing the post-metaphysical (“post-modern”) condition.
What I suggest is that Camus’ work challenges the very core of the so-called “post-modern” condition, namely the breakdown of Western metaphysical tradition and the anti-foundational reduction of politics to life, offering important insights into the tensions and “aporia” that characterise the contemporary world. By unmasking the illusory attempts to reactivate the old (liberal) political categories of the democracies who had won World War II, Camus’ reflection offers an essential contribution – almost sixty years later – towards a serious understanding of the question of nihilism as the ethical and political question of the post-metaphysical, “post-modern” – or, to use Vattimo’s terminology, “aesthetic” – society, against and beyond its historical and political “removal” in the post-war years.
As Jacqueline Lévi-Valensi points out, “Camus n’a pas écrit de traité d’idéologie, ni de philosophie politique, et ne se considérait pas comme un philosophe ; il aimait à se définir comme un artiste”. I argue that in Camus’ work the artist embodies an unfinished ethical-political project, which joins Arendt’s attempt at “aestheticizing the political” against the reduction of politics to domination (in the sense of Nancy’s “immanent community”), and towards what Julia Kristeva defines as a “politique esthétique sans la réification de l’action narrative en œuvres”. Tragedy, appealing to an anti-Manichean understanding of conflict, and insisting on the elements of contingency, risk and unpredictability, offers in this respect the conceptual tools for delimiting the ambiguous notion of aesthetic politics, against and beyond its nihilistic and terrorist drives.


	Samantha Novello ‘Tragedy and Aesthetic Politics: Rethinking the Political beyond Nihilism in the work of Albert Camus’ Insisting in 1992 on the contribution of Albert Camus’ moral and political reflection “to our historical understanding, and to our ability to rethink the imagery appropriate to our politics at the dawn of the twenty-first century”, Jeffrey Isaac drew the attention to an “unfinished project”, which emerges in the work of the French author. Focusing on his essays, articles and plays between 1942 and 1957, the aim of this paper is to challenge the meaning of this unfinished project, and its viability in the contemporary political situation, by exploring the relation between nihilism and tragedy in Camus’ work. I argue that in the French author’s reflection tragedy offers the categories to re-think a certain kind of political action beyond the tabula rasa of politics, which he experienced through totalitarian terror. With Gianni Vattimo, I intend to show how Camus’ constant concern with, and inquiry into the different meanings of nihilism, developed through a life-long dialogue with the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche, goes toward the formulation of an “aesthetic paradigm” of political action, as opposed to the Historicist paradigm, embodied by 19th century philosophies of History and culminating in Communism, on the one hand; and to the bio-political paradigm, that emerged from the breakdown of Western tradition, which can be still seen as characterizing the post-metaphysical (“post-modern”) condition. What I suggest is that Camus’ work challenges the very core of the so-called “post-modern” condition, namely the breakdown of Western metaphysical tradition and the anti-foundational reduction of politics to life, offering important insights into the tensions and “aporia” that characterise the contemporary world. By unmasking the illusory attempts to reactivate the old (liberal) political categories of the democracies who had won World War II, Camus’ reflection offers an essential contribution – almost sixty years later – towards a serious understanding of the question of nihilism as the ethical and political question of the post-metaphysical, “post-modern” – or, to use Vattimo’s terminology, “aesthetic” – society, against and beyond its historical and political “removal” in the post-war years. As Jacqueline Lévi-Valensi points out, “Camus n’a pas écrit de traité d’idéologie, ni de philosophie politique, et ne se considérait pas comme un philosophe ; il aimait à se définir comme un artiste”. I argue that in Camus’ work the artist embodies an unfinished ethical-political project, which joins Arendt’s attempt at “aestheticizing the political” against the reduction of politics to domination (in the sense of Nancy’s “immanent community”), and towards what Julia Kristeva defines as a “politique esthétique sans la réification de l’action narrative en œuvres”. Tragedy, appealing to an anti-Manichean understanding of conflict, and insisting on the elements of contingency, risk and unpredictability, offers in this respect the conceptual tools for delimiting the ambiguous notion of aesthetic politics, against and beyond its nihilistic and terrorist drives.