Telling Stories: Narrative Reflections in L’Etranger

Abstract

L’Etranger is of course ‘l’histoire de Meursault’. However sharply divided critical opinion may be on other aspects of the novel, in this case there is unanimity, no cause for bagarre: Meursault is the prime narrative subject of the book. So glaringly obvious, so unworthy of comment is this fact that its tacit, constant recognition obscures the place held by other story-tellers and story-subjects in Camus’s text.

il avait eu une bagarre avec un type qui lui cherchait des histoires¹