The distance between reality and fiction: Roland Barthes reading Albert Camus
The distance between reality and fiction: Roland Barthes reading Albert Camus

Summary/Abstract: This paper concentrates on a little known literary debate between Roland Barthes and Albert Camus on problems of interpretation of Camus’ famous novel, The Plague. Arguments used in this debate are analysed in reference to literary theories developed by Barthes and Camus in the 1950s, as well as to the famous polemic between Camus, Francis Jeason and Jean-Paul Sartre in 1952. The context of these debates refers directly to the issues of Marxism and realism in art and allows for a better understanding of subsequent attacks on Camus’ novel, seen as a source of anti-historical ethics that leads to solitude rather than human solidarity. On a meta-level, the discussed debate demonstrates how ideologically oriented art theory can lead to serious limitations of interpretive possibilities.

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