Short Stories by A. Camus and J.P. Sartre in the Context of Existential Philosophy (in the Collections «L’Exil et le Royaume» and «Le Mur»)

This thesis primarily aims at the close analysis of two texts — L'Exil et le Royaume (1957) by A. Camus and Le Mur (1939) by J.-P. Sartre in the context of the philosophy of existentialism. The immanent analysis of short stories is mainly focused on the organization of space in both collections, which is extremely important for the theory of existentialism. In Camus' novels, we examined space through several oppositions: open and closed space, imaginary and real space, man and space, movement and statics, exile and kingdom, solidarity and loneliness. Analyzing the spatial organization of Sartre’s short stories, we focused on relations between closed and open spaces, the boundary of spaces and hence the “borderline” state of the characters, and the concept of human internal freedom. Moreover, having examined the philosophical essays of these authors and how they relate to the space of the text, we found out how the philosophical ideas of these writers are incorporated into this collection of short stories