Page 14 - Wabah (KUMPULAN CERPEN)

A NOTE FROM THE EDITORS

Wening Udasmoro & Arifah Rahmawati

When Albert Camus wrote La Peste (The Plague) in
1947, Europe was not experiencing an epidemic. Rather,
La Peste depicts an earlier time, when France was occupied
by Nazi Germany (1940–1944). Camus’ plague is thus an
allegory for the Germans, whose occupation caused pain
and suffering for both adults and children. This novel is
a reflective tale of humanity, embedded with existential
logics that are narrated with emphasis on symbolic aspects,
thereby highlighting the lack of freedom that limits human
interactions. It is used as a means of expressing the injustice,
inequality, indifference, and absurdity of human “existence”.
Although France was not then in the throes of a plague, this
epidemic is used allegorically to illustrate the dangers of war
and the subjugation of human beings.
Works of literature are often considered little more
than fictional and imaginative works that are ‘created’ to
respond to social situations. Although many have argued

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