Academic Events
Lecture(No.146) Sisyphus on the Mediterranean side - let-s read Camus together
Publish Date:2022-12-06

On December 6, 2022, Professor QIAN Han from the School of Chinese Language and Literature of Beijing Normal University delivered a lecture entitled "Sisyphus on the Mediterranean side - let's read Camus together". The lecture was held online and chaired by IICE LIU Min.




Starting with the life of Camus, Professor QIAN introduced the main ideas and differences between French existentialist masters Sartre and Camus. Later, he explained the background, language style and spiritual connotation of works such as La Peste, Le Mythe de Sisyphe, L'Étranger and La Chute. Then, he carefully interpreted Camus's position in the Algerian War, the multiple binary opposites expressed in the novel (such as the contradiction between human rationality and the irrational existence of the world leads to absurdity) and the author's hesitation in the thought conveyed by the novel by sharing the fragments of L'Étranger. At the end, Professor QIAN talked about the relationship between repentance and Zen in Camus's literary works.


QIAN Han is a Young Cheung Kong Professor, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of the School of Chinese Language and Literature of Beijing Normal University. He has published many monographs in Chinese and foreign languages and dozens of academic papers, such as La double face de la lit é rate: de la concept de l'oeuvre à cell du texte, The Eighteen Lectures on Rostrum Scriptures, etc.