On Europe and Britain, Albert Camus; The Future of European Civilisation; Το μέλλον του ευρωπαϊκού πολιτισμού/ L’avenir de la civilisation européenne

From New Europeans  - A quotation from Albert Camus, Conférence faite en Angleterre, 1951 - in fact a radio broadcast for the BBC, "Albert Camus  Talks about the General Election in Britain", probably recorded in Paris, not in London; first broadcast 8th November 1951, then in an English translation on 10th November.

L’avenir de la civilisation européenne

Camus seemed to express rather different opinions at a round-table colloquium on The Future of European Civilisation in Athens on 28 April 1955 (Το μέλλον του ευρωπαϊκού πολιτισμού - Συζήτηση στρογγυλής τραπέζης υπό την προεδρία του Άγγελου Κατακουζηνού). I have just finished reading this book in Greek.

                                       
He said words to the effect that "we must struggle to overcome these obstacles in order to build a Europe in which Paris, Athens, Rome and Berlin will be the central nerves of an empire of the Middle Way". The Middle Way was then seen as a leftist alternative, a Third Way, 'between Communism and American Capitalism' (taken from an editorial note). Towards the end of the discussion, Camus emphasised the view that European civilisation (or traces of it) had spread beyond the geographical borders of Europe, influencing nations which were not fully European - such as England (ie Britain), which he considered 'only half European, geographically and culturally'. Or have I misunderstood?

"Il n’y a pas de doute non plus que l’Angleterre n’est qu'à moitié européenne, aussi bien géographiquement que culturellement".

Maybe the UK is only 'fifty-fifty' European. When first writing this post, I didn't have access to the French originals of his colloquium comments, which I believe were published in Essais, Editions Gallimard (1965)*. They were originally published in L'avenir de la civilisation européenne: entretien avec Albert Camus, Union Culturelle Gréco-Français, Athens, 1956, 54 pages

*Update: I have now received the paperback, ordered from France, Albert Camus, Conférences et discours, 1936-1958, Gallimard, Collection Folio, from which the two quotations above have been scanned.

I hope Camus' Athens comments are not shared by Michel Barnier...

Camus was rather more positive in 1951:

“Europe, because of its disarray, needs Britain...Facts say that, for better or worse, Britain and Europe are inseparable".

"L'Europe, à cause même de ses désordres, a besoin de l'Angleterre...Les faits disent que pour le meilleur et pour le pire l'Angleterre et l'Europe sont solidaires".

I recall some other observations on Europe that Camus made at different times (eg 1944 and 1957), from Resistance, Rebellion and Death, by Albert Camus, translated by Justin O’Brien (1961):

Letters to a German Friend, Third Letter, April 1944 (unpublished at the time):

“During all the time we were obstinately and silently serving our country, we never lost sight of an idea and a hope, forever present in us – the idea and the hope of Europe. To be sure, we hadn’t mentioned Europe for five years. But this is because you talked too much of it. And there too we were not speaking the same language; our Europe is not yours…

You speak of Europe, but the difference is that for you Europe is a property, whereas we feel that we belong to it…you cannot keep yourselves from thinking of a cohort of docile nations led by a lordly Germany toward a fabulous and bloody future…for us Europe is a home of the spirit where for the last twenty centuries the most amazing adventure of the human spirit has been going on…As you see, there is no common denominator...This urges me to say that your Europe is not the right one. There is nothing there to unite us or inspire. Ours is a joint adventure that we shall all continue to pursue, despite you, with the inspiration of intelligence”.

The Wager of our Generation (interview, October 1957):

“Unity and diversity, and never one without the other – isn’t this the very secret of our Europe?...I do not believe in a Europe unified under the weight of an ideology or of a technocracy that would overlook these differences. Any more than I believe in a Europe left to its differences alone – in other words, left to an anarchy of enemy nationalisms”.

Postscript:

During this visit to Greece in 1955 (aged 41), Camus didn't just think about the future of European civilization or write down in his notebooks his observations of the monuments of the civilization of Ancient Greece that he was taken to see.  It gave him some respite from thinking about the problems of Algeria. He had quite a roving eye, it seems (Olivier Todd, in his biography of Camus, makes it clear that Camus was always something of a Don Juan character):

From Carnets III, pages 185-205

“Mon charmant traducteur de 21 ans, d’une frâicheur adorable...qui fait ma conquête et que j’adopte», p.185

«Sauf une, ces jeunes filles grecques manquent de grâce et de style»,  p.190

«Le soir dances populaires chez « Johnny le fou ». Je m’efforce de trouver ces danses intéressantes mais les danseurs et surtout les danseuses sont trop laids ». p.190

«Soir. Conférence. Suis touché par une jeune fille inscrite», p.197

« Plus tard revenu à la chaloupe, une ravissante adolescente grecque, habillée simplement sur le quai. Quand la chaloupe quitte le quai je lui fais un signe auquel elle répond tout de suite avec un beau sourire. Sur le cotre je me déshabille et plonge dans l’eau transparente et verte. Elle est glacée et je remonte après quelques brasses», p.200

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