Intertextuality in Albert Camus’s philosophy: “let us imagine Sisyphus happyâ€

Abstract

Intertextuality, the term defining the relationship and the similarity of a newly-produced text with previous ones, has provided a broad array of subjects to be studied especially in social sciences. Firstly, literary works have been analyzed within the framework of intertextuality, and striking similarities have been found among literary texts. Nevertheless, the world cannot be limited to the literature since there are numerous ways and possibilities for human beings to express themselves. Philosophy, for instance, is the deepest version of humans’ self-expressions and understandings; therefore, it has been inevitably influenced by external sources such as myths, literature, politics, economics or society. Although the intertextuality in philosophy has been mostly analyzed through the written philosophical works, there is a more basic and evident relationship in philosophers’ perspectives: the intertextuality in the philosophy itself. Accordingly, this study aims to illustrate the role of the intertextual references in the formation of philosophical approaches. For this purpose, the study will focus on Albert Camus’s “absurd†philosophy, and the intertextual relationship between Camus’s philosophy and the myth of Sisyphus will be examined from a comparative perspective. By this way, it is aimed to demonstrate how our happiness is dependent on our desire to “imagine Sisyphus happyâ€.