Absurdity of Human in l’Etranger by Albert Camus: the Opposing View of Life in Society

This paper aims to analyze the meaning of absurdity, as the central theme of Camus's works. Absurdity is a thing that is extremely unreasonable or contrary to the rules of logic existing in society. The data are derived from a novel entitled L'Etranger (Stanger), by Camus. This paper examines the meaning of absurdity from the perspective of semiotics. Absurdity in this paper is then described as a meta-language or a concept of contradiction (dichotomy) between the state of being dominant and subdominant in a society, in which the dominant refers to social rules, while the sub-dominant refers to the opposing view of life in the society held by Meursault as the main character in this novel. The meaning of absurdity attributed to this romance is the alienation of life from society as a consequence of having an opposing way of life in society. The absurd human is an outsider from society.