Edward Said on Camus in "Culture and Imperialism"

Quote from Camus which was reproduced by Edward Said in his book on Eurocentric viewpoints in literature. 

As far as Algeria is concerned, national independence is a formula driven by nothing other than passion. There has never yet been an Algerian nation. The Jews, the Turks, Greeks, Italians, or Berbers would be as entitled to claim the leadership of this potential nation. As things stand, the Arabs do not comprise the whole of Algeria … The French of Algeria are also natives, in the strong sense of the word. Moreover, a purely Arab Algeria could not achieve that economic independence without which political independence is nothing but an illusion. (cited by Said, 1993 p 179).

Comment: Although Camus was 'left-wing' on domestic French issues, the fact he was born as a French white citizen in French colonial Algeria, led to his refusal to support Algerian independence. On this issue he was in the view of many people 'on the wrong side of history'. There remains the fact none of the Arab characters in "L'Etranger' have names.
However, his novel remains an important work, Meursault's emotional detachment is perhaps a symptom of the wider state of European sensibility in the aftermath of World War 2. Beckett and Camus both struggled with the big questions facing humanity in the wake of such carnage. Where is God? What does it mean to be human? What are the limits of power? What is the role of ethics and morality in a world which lacks the certainty of religious faith? Is the repetition of simple daily actions - removing a hat or shoe (Beckett) or cleaning one's flat (Meursault) the only way to punctuate the boredom and pass the time away in a meaningless or at least indifferent universe?(Mr C)
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Further reading for advanced students: Alice Holbrook, Knox College, USA

"In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and J. M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians, imperial forces use naming as a tool of oppression, forcing language which represents their point of view upon those they have conquered. However, in their novels, Conrad and Coetzee also portray imperialists as perverting the correspondence of naming and characteristics and destroying the basis of their own power, precipitating a moral, and finally a physical, downfall. Heart of Darkness and Waiting for the Barbarians use similar perspectives on the inabsolute in imperial language to reach the same conclusion about imperialism itself: it is misguided, and, ultimately, doomed."

http://departments.knox.edu/engdept/commonroom/Volume_Eleven/number_two/Holbrook/index.html