Nobel Prize acceptance speech by Albert Camus: A Summary

Albert Camus’ speech at the Nobel Banquet at the city hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1957.

At the outset of the speech he expresses his immense gratitude towards the academy as they generously honoured him. Obviously, this reward of excellence overcomes all his personal merits and achievements that he gained so far.  He says: “Every man, and for stronger reasons, every artist, wants to be recognized. So do I”. He was of the opinion that artists are needed to be recognized, because they have significant role in order to modify and reform the society. They can influence the human community by creating a movement in their minds.

 

“But I have not been able to learn of your decision without comparing its repercussions to what I really am. A man almost young, rich only in his doubts and with his work still in progress, accustomed to living in the solitude of work or in the retreats of friendship: how would he not feel a kind of panic at hearing the decree that transports him all of a sudden, alone and reduced to himself, to the center of a glaring light? And with what feelings could he accept this honour at a time when other writers in Europe, among them the very greatest, are condemned to silence, and even at a time when the country of his birth is going through unending misery?”

 

He expresses a sense of wonder along with the mixed feelings such as excitement on the one hand and disappointment on the other. As he thinks he was not a deserving person for this award of eminence. Since, he comparatively young and always surrounded by doubts like an average man and still wanders in the path of progression. Moreover, his country was going through unending miseries and hardships.

 

He doesn’t know how to receive this award and how to express his feelings. He feels shock and inner turmoil at hearing this decision of the academy. He reduces to himself and becomes the center of  glaring light. Later, he regains piece from his internal turmoil. Camus wants to say that he exists in the world only because of art. Afterwards, he expresses his notion regarding the nature of art and the role of the writer.

 

“For myself, I cannot live without my art. But I have never placed it above everything. If, on the other hand, I need it, it is because it cannot be separated from my fellow men, and it allows me to live, such as I am, on one level with them.” He says that he can’t think about a world without art. But, he has never placed an artist above everything. As far as he is concerned an artist is as equal to all other human beings. Even though he became a privileged person from others, he has to admit the fact that he is one among those multitudes, and then only he can maintain his artistic faculties. “And often he who has chosen the fate of the artist because he felt himself to be different soon realizes that he can maintain neither his art nor his difference unless he admits that he is like the others.”

 

In fact the writer slightly keeps himself different from the common human community, but he can never articulate the real beauty of art. So, he remains in the midway. Further, he mentions that a true artist shall not judge but understand others. “That is why true artists scorn nothing: they are obliged to understand rather than to judge. And if they have to take sides in this world, they can perhaps side only with that society in which, according to Nietzsche’s great words, not the judge but the creator will rule, whether he be a worker or an intellectual.”

 

Afterwards, he expresses his opinion regarding the role of the writer as he is not free from the difficult duties. “By the same token, the writer’s role is not free from difficult duties. By definition he cannot put himself today in the service of those who make history; he is at the service of those who suffer it. Otherwise, he will be alone and deprived of his art.” Writers are not only meant for glorifying those who create history, instead they should write about the abandoned or those who exposed to humiliations. He should transmit his thoughts into words, after all, literature is a means of resounding the silences of the writer. An artist can win the hearts of the people by admitting the fact that ‘the greatness of art lies on Truth and Liberty’. “The two tasks that constitute the greatness of his craft: the service of truth and the service of liberty. Because his task is to unite the greatest possible number of people, his art must not compromise with lies and servitude which, wherever they rule, breed solitude. Whatever our personal weaknesses may be, the nobility of our craft will always be rooted in two commitments, difficult to maintain: the refusal to lie about what one knows and the resistance to oppression.”

 

Further, he explains the battalion of horrors and sorrows that the generation including Camus witnessed during the periods of wars. But, he has been supported by the commitment to write with truthfully and freely.

 

“These men, who were born at the beginning of the First World War, who were twenty when Hitler came to power and the first revolutionary trials were beginning, who were then confronted as a completion of their education with the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War, the world of concentration camps, a Europe of torture and prisons – these men must today rear their sons and create their works in a world threatened by nuclear destruction. Nobody, I think, can ask them to be optimists.” These are the snapshot of convulsions of the time. People were exposed to catastrophe. As a result they turned to be  Nihilists (one who believes that life is meaningless and rejects all the religion and moral values as well as principles). But, Europeans in general and Camus in particular refused this notion of Nihilism. As far as an artist is concerned he has to inject optimism to the people through their work of art.

 

Each generation undoubtedly feels a kind of wake up call regarding the reformation of the world. But according to Albert Camus the task was ever greater. It consists of saving the world from destroying itself. The world witnesses extremely catastrophic situation where every good things turned into evil. Things fall apart, the center cannot hold anymore. Technology goes mad, God becomes blind and deaf, and ideologies come to be worn out.  

 

After all, the intelligence debases itself to become the servant of hatred and oppression. Here lies the relevance of the writer, he can resurrect and re-establish which constitute the dignity of life and death. He says that certainly, it is an immense task and gradually it is rising everywhere in the world. Some are even ready to sacrifice their own life for accomplishing the double challenge of truth and liberty. for that generation he should like to pass on his honour. At the same time after having received this honour for his excellence, he puts himself in the right position as he is one among the others.    

 

“He has no other claims but those which he shares with his comrades in arms: vulnerable but obstinate, unjust but impassioned for justice, doing his work without shame or pride in view of everybody, not ceasing to be divided between sorrow and beauty...” He remarks that as a representative of his own comrades, he shares certain qualities significantly, having double existence like at once vulnerable and obstinate and unjust but impassioned for justice etc.

 

After, he expresses his view on truth by saying that it is mysterious and elusive always to be conquered. When it comes to the notion of liberty he says that too much of liberty is dangerous, as hard to live with as it is elating. We must march towards these two commitments resolutely. Once again he emphasizes the idea that to achieve these commitments are double challenging.one has to require strong will power and determination.A writer supposed to have a good conscience and be a preacher of virtue but he pronounces that he was not of that sort. But, he unquestionably supported all those silent men who faced endless dangers and sufferings. He believes that he could provide a ray of hope for them out of his writing.

 

He winds up his word by expressing his immense gratitude again to the gathering. Meanwhile, he shared all his ideologies regarding art and the role of the writer.