Albert Camus originally delivered lecture on “La Crise de l’homme” on March 28, 1946, to a very full house at the McMillin Academic Theatre at Columbia University, on his first and only trip to the United States. 70 years later, to celebrate Camus’s visit to New York and Columbia, his lecture will be delivered in a dramatic reading by the actor Viggo Mortensen, in a version newly translated into English by Alice Kaplan.
On April 28, 2016 this is a re-enacted reading by Viggo Mortensen of the speech by Albert Camus, followed by a roundtable discussion with Viggo Mortensen, Alice Kaplan and Souleymane Bachir Diagne, to celebrate the 70th year anniversary of Camus’ visit to the United States.
The Human Crisis – Le Crise de lHomme (Albert Camus) link to text
To summarize this evening and speaking now for myself, I would like to say just this: whenever we judge France, or any other country, or any matter, in terms of power, we are aiding and abetting a conception of man that leads inevitably to his mutilation. We are reinforcing the thirst for domination and we are headed towards the sanctioning of murder. What goes for the world of action goes for ideas. And those who say or write that the end justifies the means, those who say and write that greatness is measured by force, they are absolutely responsible for the atrocious accumulation of crimes disfiguring contemporary Europe. – Albert Camus