Valerii Shevchuk’s Story “The Plague” (“Mor”) and Albert Camus’ Novel “The Plague”: Matches in the Context of the Philosophy of Existentialism

The paper provides a comparative analysis of V. Shevchuk’s story “The Plague” and A. Camus’ novel “The Plague,” tracing both the common and differing features of the works in terms of worldviews, philosophical ideas, and poetics. The main focus is on the writers’ reception of ideas characteristic of existentialist philosophy, the affinity of the issues raised (such as absurdity, choice, sacrifice, suffering, duty, revolt, freedom, and limit situations), and the system of images (namely characters, cities, and the plague). Both works combine historical, philosophical, and allegorical elements at the genre and content levels. However, a chronicle approach and a specific historical context are more pronounced in Camus’ novel “The Plague,” while V. Shevchuk’s story is based more on mystical and unreal elements, reflecting his dominant idiostyle known as neo-baroque poetics. The images in the works of A. Camus and V. Shevchuk are related and grounded in the philosophical ideas of existentialism, particularly the idea of choice. The heroes of both works make moral choices that demonstrate their revolt against absurdity, resistance to evil in all its forms, and, despite the endless struggle, give purpose to their paths, filling life with meaning. The image of the city in A. Camus’ novel, in contrast to V. Shevchuk’s work, has clear time-space coordinates and a distinct historical context. In both works, the city appears as a closed space where absurdity reigns and a person is faced with the necessity of choice, revealing their true nature. Such circumstances allow for the representation of simulated types of behavior in limit situations. In both A. Camus’ novel and V. Shevchuk’s story, the image of the plague has a specific historical meaning (fascism in Camus’ “The Plague” and totalitarianism in Shevchuk’s work) and plays a role in a philosophical parable (metaphysical evil and evil as a part of the human inner world). Both the French and Ukrainian authors tend to similarly assess human behavior in an absurd world.