Mathias Énard and Laura Fernández

In 2022, Mathias Énard received the Third Premi Mediterrani Albert Camus, a prestigious literary prize given for the first time to a writer whose work, with its deep social commitment, invokes the incorruptible spirit of The Stranger (also published as The Outsider). Énard says that his work “is inspired by the Mediterranean and by Camus, and the possibility the human being has to rebel and to use language, thought, art, and literature to change the world”. Is there, then, such a thing as Mediterranean thought? If so, what does it consist of? In the present context of polarised opinions, is it possible to raise voices that are as incorruptible as that of Camus in his times?

Through Énard’s experience and his way of dealing with the artistic fact, and on the basis of his reading of Camus, this session will address the question of how the writer constructs “a place in the world” from which, like Sisyphus and without despair, looks towards a future that will always have to start again, and how to put into practice a kind of intimate resistance that might imagine and transform the world.

Jointly organised with the Trobades i Premis Mediterranis Albert Camus (Albert Camus Mediterranean Awards and Meetings) and the French Institute of Barcelona, this is the first session in the programme of the “Albert Camus Evenings”, which aims to commemorate this French writer and draw attention to the relevance of his legacy today.