A Comparative Study of Absurdity and Alienation in Albert Camus's the Outsider and Jibanananda Das's "One Day Eight Years Ago"

Abstract

This paper explorers the themes of absurdity and alienation in Albert Camus's novel, The Outsider and Jibanananda Das’s poem “One Day Eight Years Ago” through the lenses of Comparative Literature and Textual Analysis. Both the protagonists of the novel and the poem encompass absurd and alienated elements which are manifested through their activities and behaviors. Additionally, this thesis uses a comparative examination of The Outsider and “One Day Eight Years Ago” as two different literary genres of two different cultures to draw a comparison between absurdity and alienation used by them. This endeavor also highlights the relative difference between Albert Camus's and Jibanananda Das's use of absurdity and alienation in their respective writings.