Camus' early aesthetics, 1932-1940 : the Nietzschean tragic perspective

Camus’ work has been the subject of a great deal of scholarly attention, particularly in the United States. However since the release of his posthumous novel La Mort heureuse (1971) and of his earliest essays no work has been done on the first period of his writing as a cohesive unit. The play Caligula was first composed in 1938-1939 although most analyses of it use the subsequent 1944 and 1958 versions which are substantially different in tone and character development.
This dissertation seeks to analyse Camus' works written between 1932 and 1940. The method chosen is a chronological study of the imagery, character development and generic structure of each work, with frequent references to the notebooks Camus kept during the period. A use of the Nietzschean perspective on tragedy is fruitful in tying together the various elements in these works since the period discussed culminates in a Nietzschean tragedy: Caligula.