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"It's All Uphill From Here: Joyful Rebellion in Camus' Philosophy and Literature"
As a movement popularized in the aftermath of warn-torn Europe, it is no wonder that existentialism’s lack of prescribed meaning is taken to be synonymous with a lack of possible meaning for an individual. The media reaction to the movement, moreover, exacerbated this misconception. Existentialism, however, has always been first and foremost a philosophy of freedom; it allows everyone to make meaning in his or her own life. In this paper I argue that one of the prominent authors of the existential movement, Albert Camus, advocates an existentialism through his both his philosophy and literature that allows for the possibility of joy in the face of the absurd. The Myth of Sisyphus presents a fairly complete philosophy in its own right, but the characters in both The Stranger and A Happy Death solidify the importance of rebellion in Camus’ works. Rather than any kind of joyful affirmation, in Camus we are left with the idea of a possible joy but always in the face of the inescapable conditions of the absurd. Joy then, is in the details. If the system cannot be changed, if the entirety of one’s existence cannot be rewritten, then what is left is in rebellion. Standing up against the structures of systems set up to limit and control individuals. Camus, calls this rebellion is an affirmation, but by virtue of its necessarily contrasting construction, “affirmation” hardly seems appropriate. This is the true limitation of Sisyphean joy—it relies on oppression to rebel against. It is negating rather than affirming. If those things that stood against a person were benevolent and supportive, rebellion is not called for in the name of joy; but it is still of course mandated in the name of freedom—reliance on social constructions can bring a kind of happiness, but never existential joy, only a kind of blissful ignorance. There is always cause for rebellion from those who are in a position of knowledge of their circumstances, so long as any institution tries to enforce meaning. This kind of joy “in the face of” or “in spite of” the conditions of existence, must acknowledge the importance of these conditions: namely the institutions that seek to prescribe meaning. There is freedom, to be sure, and therefore the possibility of joy, but this freedom is always in the face of circumstances.