Le Renegat

In the interest of balancing things out a little, I'm going to post on Le Renegat. I think it is perhaps the one story in L'Exil et le Royaume where Camus explicitly tackles the idea of colonialism. It seems that a lot of critics have picked up on the Beckettian influence in Le Renegat, including (once again) David Carroll. I guess it is from a Beckettian standpoint that I'd like to frame my 'discussion'.

What I found striking in the story were the passages where the protagonist laughs. (p47 especially), especially sincne this motif also ties in with La Chute. It seems bizarre that laughter should be the eponymous character's reaction to his torture. Beckett has always made use of humour and comedy in his works, a tactic which makes viewers feel somewhat uncomfortable. Whilst Camus is by no means trying to make us laugh, the laughter of his character seems almost inexplicable. Perhaps there would be a case for his laughter near the end of the tale, where he has in some way achieved retribution (and also through his mental state). I guess what I'd be asking, is, seeing as the laughter is inenxplicable through reason or sense - in its first instance anyway - how does this tie into Camus's idea of the absurd? Is laughter the ultimate absurd act? Is it always an inexplicable and in some ways 'unplaceable' act which cannot be explained away? It is interesting that, having had his tongue cut off, laughter is still possible, but coherent expression is not.