Hey friends. I've heard some of you are confused about the annotated bibliography. If you look back at your Stranger stuff, you should have an example of one about existentialism and absurdism.
Here are two examples (you'll not that for each, only one entry has the complete annotation-- you'll want to do that annotation for each)...
EXAMPLE 1:
Amber Manning and
Lori Townzen
IB Teachin’
French Algeria: An Annotated Bibliography
Astier, Henri. “The Deep Roots of French Secularism.” BBC
News Online. British Broadcasting Corporation. Web. 1 September 2004.
Evans, Martin. Algeria: France’s Undeclared War. Oxford: Oxford University Press:
2012. Print
Heartfield, James. The ‘Death of the
Subject’ Explained. Sheffield Hallam University: 2006. Print.
Heggoy, Alf Andrew. “Education in French Algeria: An Essay on Cultural
Conflict.” Comparative
Education Review Vol 17 No. 2.
(June 1973): 180-197. The
University of Chicago Press.
Klein, Martin. Slavery and Colonial Rule in French West Africa. Cambridge
University Press. 1998. Print.
Nelson, Harold D. Algeria, A Country of Study 4th
edition. Washington D.C.: United States Army1984.
Print.
Zaretzky,
Robert. Albert Camus: Elements of a Life.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010. Print.
Summary:
The purpose of this book is to give a history of Camus’ life through his major
political and philosophical shifts. As such, the beginning of the book really
deals with the treatment of Arabs in Algeria because, during World War 2, Camus
moved to France. The book begins with a comparison between the plight of the
Arab in Algeria and the Irish people in British controlled, Ireland, arguing
that both groups were oppressed by legislation and famine. Zaretzky then goes
on to discuss Camus’ role in the plight of the Arab people, beginning with his
involvement with the Communist party in 1935. At the time, the party supported
the liberation of the Arab people, particularly in their defense of the French
farmer Hodent. The author goes on to describe the many horrific scenes Camus
witnessed with writing for an Algerian newspaper, scenes that depicted the
horror of the lives of many Arab Algerians. Later, Zaretsky spends more time on
Camus’ reaction to the Algerian revolution, demonstrating why Camus’ political
struggles in France eventually led to a vow of silence over the revolution,
despite his initial support for the Arab nationalists.
Evaluation:
This text is fairly unbiased, though the author’s tone is certainly more
critical of Sartre than Camus in his discussion of their feud. The author goes
in very in-depth in the political and philosophical changes that Camus
underwent but provides very little personal context for such transformations,
making them harder to understand and contextualize.
Reflection:
I found this text to be somewhat useful to my research because it certainly
deals with the treatment of Arabs in French-occupied Algeria. That being said,
the text is not focused on the plight of these people but rather Camus’
involvement with said plight. As Camus was a very prominent journalist in
Algeria, his involvement was important. However, much of the book also deals
with Camus’ increasing embrace of Absurdism and rejection of Communism; the
author never connects these ideas to Camus’ role in Algeria, making the second
half of the text less useful for my purposes.
EXAMPLE 2
Amber Manning
IB Livin’ Life & Stuff
Existentialism and Absurdism: An Annotated Bibliography
Aronson, Ronald, "Albert Camus", The
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.),
URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2012/entries/camus/>.
Crowell, Steven, "Existentialism", The
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2010 Edition), Edward N.
Zalta (ed.), URL =
<http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2010/entries/existentialism/>.
Genovese, Maria. “Meaningful Meaninglessness: Albert Camus’
Presentation of Absurdism as a Foundation for Goodness.” Digital Commons @ Salve Regina: Salve’s Dissertations and Theses.
(2010): n. pag. Web. 18 February 2013.
Gutting,
Gary. French Philosophy in the Twentieth
Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Print.
Summary:
The purpose of this book is to give a brief history of the schools of
philosophy that developed in France from the 1890s to the end of the twentieth
century. The text goes in-depth on a number of philosophical schools but deals
largely with existentialism. Gutting also deals with absurdism but primarily in
context of responses to existential thought. Gutting discusses at length much
of the lead up to existentialism; he clarifies how both WWI and WWII influenced
French philosophers to reject both moral and scientific explanations for the
cause and purpose of human existence. Though primarily through a discussion of
Sartre’s theories on existentialism, Gutting does introduce how Nietzche and
Kierkegaard both helped to develop existentialism’s embrace of the human
experience as opposed to theories about human essence and nature. The author’s
primary argument regarding existentialism deals with the means of understanding
“authenticity” and different philosopher’s views on the possibility of
achieving “authenticity”. He often draws connections between authenticity and
angst, demonstrating that angst is a natural part of existentialism and one
that should be treated as such when understanding this school of thought. As
for absurdism, Gutting introduces absurdism as a school of thought based
primarily in humankind’s desire to understand the meaning of life and inability
to do so.
Evaluation:
This text is very straightforward and is not meant to really critique any form
of philosophy. It is meant to be a history of French philosophy and the author
clearly and thoroughly gives said history. Gutting is the chair of philosophy
at Notre Dame, demonstrating his professional prestige; additionally, his books
have been published by a myriad of scholarly journals and presses, proving his
worth in the scholarly community. That being said, as Gutting is primarily a
Foucault scholar, many of Foucault’s less important philosophical musings are
given quite a bit of text and female philosophers (even de Beauvoir) are not
examined as thoroughly.
Reflection:
I found this text to be particularly useful to my research because it is
expository in nature. As I was trying to find out the basic tenants and history
of existentialism and absurdism, this book gave a great deal of information about
both. However, as Gutting attempts to examine all schools of thought in French
modern philosophy, he does not go as in-depth into absurdism, making the text
more useful for an understanding of existentialism.
Martin, Andy. “Sartre and Camus in New York.”
The Stone. July 2012. The New York Times. Web. 18 February 2013.
