A stranger in a strange land: An existentialist reading of Fredrick Clegg in "The Collector" by John Fowles

• Autores: Andrés Romero Jódar
• Localización: Atlantis: Revista de la Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos, ISSN 0210-6124, Vol. 28, Nº 1, 2006, págs. 45-55
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This essay analyses the influence of French Existentialism in John Fowles¿s The Collector, making use of three of Albert Camus¿s works, Le mythe de Sisyphe, L¿Étranger, and L¿Homme révolté, and how the protagonist of John Fowles¿s novel fits the pattern of the absurd man established by Camus. The Collector is not only just an allegorical representation of the power struggle between the Few and the Many, a recurrent topic in the fictions of Fowles; it is also a practical example of the evil nature of Camus¿s absurd man, stemming from his absurd innocence. Clegg, like Meursault, the protagonist of L¿Étranger, is an isolated (anti)hero who struggles against his passions in an existence of the Absurd. A Tantalus-like figure, the collector¿s aimless efforts are the fruit of chance. He is a stranger in a strange land of Existence provoking the nausea, in Sartre¿s terms, of both Miranda and the reader.