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Profs and Pints DC presents: “Camus and Crisis,” a look at what Albert Camus’s The Plague tells us about our own uncertain times, with Andrew Sobanet, professor of French and Francophone Studies at Georgetown University, teacher of a course on Camus, and scholar of twentieth-century European literature, culture, and history.
Many of us chose over the past two years to pick up and read or reread The Plague—with good reason. Not only does the book explore questions evoked by the pandemic, its author, Albert Camus, is someone we can turn to for wisdom on how to live through tough times.
Profs and Pints debuts at the Little Penn Coffeehouse, an exciting new gathering spot in the Penn Quarter, with the perfect talk for Camus fans. The speaker, Professor Andrew Sobanet, not only teaches a course on the famed French author but researches the twentieth-century novel, European history, and the intersection of politics and literature, and has published widely on Vichy France.
Dr. Sobanet will discuss Camus’s life, and how the author’s worldview was shaped by the economic turbulence and political polarization in the 1930s, the Nazi occupation of France, and the early Cold War period. The Plague, Camus’s narrative of an epidemic in an ultramodern city, serves partly as an allegory for the rise of Nazism in the 1930s and the experience of ordinary citizens in Nazi-occupied Europe.
More broadly, he’ll explore how The Plague is a meditation on the human condition that reveals key elements of Camus’s worldview: the absurd, rebellion, justice, solidarity. Beyond that, it’s a story about how capitalism and commercialization destroy humankind’s relationship with nature.
You may leave convinced that The Plague matters more now than ever. (Advance tickets: $12. Doors: $15, or $13 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later. Please allow yourself time to place any orders and get seated and settled in. Please bring proof of vaccination as it may be required in response to local infection rates.)
Image: A mask has been added to the famous portrait of Albert Camus by Henri Cartier-Bresson—to keep the author healthy, of course.
