The autobiographical pact in Albert Camus’s diaries:

the relationship between the author, his Work, and his world (1935–1942)

Abstract

This article analyzes, through the autobiographical pact proposed by Philippe Lejeune, the diaries of Albert Camus entitled Esperança do mundo (1935–1937), A desmedida da medida (1937–1939), and A guerra começou, onde está a guerra? (1939–1942), with the aim of understanding, as its central theme, the author’s relationship with his world as expressed in his writings. By considering autobiography as both a text and a literary genre from Lejeune’s perspective, the notebooks are taken as the object of study, research, and scope regarding the relationship that the author, during his lifetime, established with his literary production, as well as with his health. Camus presented to the reader a life permeated by nature, existence, silence, and illness, since his reclusion due to tuberculosis constantly afflicted the writer. When Camus states that the feeling of being alive suggests an idea of transformation, a daily life in constant reconstruction emerges, offering new possibilities for the study of autobiography. Finally, the theoretical framework employed in this study brings to light the autobiographical component as a path toward aesthetic creation as well as testimony, given that, for Camus, the notebooks functioned as an active medium for revisitation.