Medicine as an Absurdist Quest in Albert Camus’ The Plague
August 27, 2010 eajournal 88 other publications
As a social construct, modern medicine reflects a society’s paradigms and perspectives. Within a modern technological age of increasing estrangement, intellectuals developed new philosophies such as absurdism—as well as literature reflecting these paradigms—that soon questioned whether a “magic bullet” could ever offer a panacea for antiseptic institutions. One exemplar is French-Algerian writer Albert Camus. In his 1947 novel The Plague, Camus quarantines the inhabitants of Oran in a struggle against a bubonic-like epidemic. Within this microcosm, Camus juxtaposes medicine against government and religion in his quest to find medical meaning in an absurd world.
As a social construct, modern medicine reflects a society’s paradigms and perspectives. Within a modern technological age of increasing estrangement, intellectuals developed n...
