Terror And Tragic Optimism As Sustaining Constructs In Camus’s The Plague And Soyinka’s Season Of Anomy
Terror And Tragic Optimism As Sustaining Constructs In Camus’s The Plague And Soyinka’s Season Of Anomy
ABSTRACT
Camus’s The Plague has been read variously as an allegory of Nazi terror in France as well as a depiction of Camus’s absurdist philosophy.
Many critics of Soyinka’s Season of Anomy strangely also have interpreted the text as an allegory of the Nigerian civil war in which terror is seen as a political weapon.
Although these modes of reading explore the resistance to terror, critical reading of a work cannot be achieved through allegory which searches for meaning outside the text.
The present reading, therefore, while distancing itself from the above perspectives, undertakes a comparative examination of the two novels in order to demonstrate that terror and tragic optimism are their sustaining constructs. The study examines tragic optimism following Nietzsche’s notion of the universal instinct. In his theory of the Ubermensch, Nietzsche presents the figure of the Overman who is able to shatter the rules of rationality that are often built on mediocrity, and set up new ones out of his own superabundant life and power.
This figure views life as evolving to higher forms with the human instinct as the spear-point of this evolution. In tragedy, the Overman resembles the “titanically striving” individual who struggles because he must.
Tragic optimism as a Nietzschean notion that runs in opposition to Schopenhauerean pessimism, is thus about “saying yes” to life in all its tragic realities, an idea that runs through The Plague and Season of Anomy.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page —————————————————————————— i
Approval ——————————————————————————- ii
Certification—————————————————————————- iii
Dedication—————————————————————————— iv
Acknowledgements ——————————————————————- v
Table of contents———————————————————————- vi
Abstract——————————————————————————— viii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION———————————————- 1
1.1 Background of Study————————————————————- 1
1.2 Statement of Problem ———————————————————— 2
1.3 Research Questions————————————————————— 2
1.4 Significance of Study————————————————————- 3
1.5 Purpose of Study—————————————————————— 3
1.6 Scope and Limitations of Study————————————————- 4
1.7 Research Methodology———————————————————– 5
1.8 Definition of Terms————————————————————— 6
1.9 Structure ————————————————————————— 6
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW————————————– 8
2.1 Review on Camus’s The Plague ———————————————– 13
2.2 Review on Soyinka’s Season of Anomy —————————————- 32
CHAPTER THREE: THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK——————– 50
3.1 Tragedy as a Literary Mode —————————————————– 51
3.2 Nietzsche’s Concept of the Overman and the Universal Instinct———— 72
CHAPTER FOUR: FACING UP TO WHAT HAD TO BE DONE ———– 95
4.1 Tragic Optimism and What Had to be Done———————————– 97
4.2 Cheerfulness before the Abyss ————————————————– 131
CHAPTER FOUR: CONFRONTATION OF MAN WITH THE MORE
THAN MAN—————————————————– 138
5.1 Terror and the More than Man in The Plague and Season of Anomy ——- 139
5.2 The Inexorable and Human Cussedness—————————————- 153
CHAPTER SIX: THE PARADOX OF SUFFERING ————————— 168
6.1 From Solitude to Solidarity—————————————————— 176
6.2 Fulfilment through Tragic Struggle——————————————— 184
CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSION ———————————————- 190
WORKS CITED ———————————————————————- 198
INTRODUCTION
Nietzsche’s theory of the Ubermensch (the Overman) shows that the superior individual, propelled by tragic optimism, struggles relentlessly and cheerfully in the face of terror, a notion that is also applicable to characters in literature.
In Camus’s The Plague and Soyinka’s Season of Anomy, tragic optimism shows the hero’s defiant will to struggle in the face of terrible circumstances.
Literary studies in general and tragedy in particular, grapple with this question of the impulse that propels the hero’s defiant will to struggle in the face of terror.
To be sure, Aristotle in his theory of tragedy, provides the background for apprehending the hero as one who must show great courage in the face of adversity.
This individual must be accounted to be “more than man” (Oedipus the King, lines 29) in as much as the experience facing him is more than man.
In a way, he connects to the figure that Nietzsche identifies as “a titanically striving individual who struggles because he must” (The Birth of Tragedy 72) and who must affirm the invincibility of the human spirit in the midst of terrible circumstances.
According to Akwanya and Anohu, Nietzsche’s Superman “resembles the Aristotelian hero in so far as he stands above mediocrity but differs from him in that the latter is already realized” (44).
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Akwanya, A.N. Verbal Structures: Studies in the Nature and Organizational Patterns of Literary Language. Enugu: Acena, 1997. Print.
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“Why Did He Do It? Chinua Achebe’s Spectacular Heroes. Okike: An African Journal of New Writing, 50 (2013): 104-123. Print.
