Jason Herbeck, professor of French and chair of World Languages, gave an invited talk at the 32nd International Colloquium of Dokkyo hosted by Dokkyo University in Japan. This year’s colloquium was on the theme “Albert Camus: L’amour de vivre” (“Albert Camus: Love of Life”). Herbeck presented a paper entitled, “‘L’exigence du bonheur’ dans La mort heureuse: les ‘semailles splendides’ de la prise de conscience camusienne” (“‘The imperative of happiness’ in A Happy Death: the ‘splendid seeds’ of Camusian consciousness”).
In his talk, Herbeck examined the French-Algerian Nobel laureat’s first completed novel, “A Happy Death,” published posthumously in 1971, and illustrated how the search for happiness upon which the protagonist embarks is linked to the tenets of consciousness Camus later articulated in his well-known philosophical essay, “The Myth of Sisyphus.”
Originally planned to take place in Japan, the colloquium was held virtually due to the pandemic and featured simultaneous Japanese-French translation.