French Literature Reviews - 2026
The Last Time
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas
The Last Time
followed by Between the Clock and the Bed: Edvard Munch's Final Confrontation
by Frédérique Toudoire-Surlapierre
Éditions de La Transparence
"cf." Series – essays in aesthetics
Chatou, August 2007
284 pages
Isbn 978-2-35051-024-8
Back cover:
“When you get here, I hope I will be able to speak; I am saving all my breath for that moment, when I will tell you many important things I have to say to you.” (Blanchot) Paradoxically, however, as a motif grounded in what has taken place but will never happen again, the last time heralds a silence against which, by its very nature, it stands in defiance. “Nothing more, forever,” the last time marks the end of the line, “the ultimate proximity” (Levinas) of the end, what is done only once, what brings a series to a close, what can no longer be undone. Is it not akin to that “traveler who would look back and wish to know at every instant only the point where he ceased to be” (Bergson)? Yet when turning back becomes impossible and nothing is left but to observe the path already traveled, literature comes into play.
Table of Contents:
To Begin: The Advances of the Last Time
Chapter One – "The Ceremony of Farewells"
1. Tragedy: Farewells to the Stage
2. Beginning and Ending
3. Poetry at the Farewell
4. Last Day, Last Wishes
Chapter II – Agony: The Lingering Pace of the Last Time
1. Corpses and the Dying: The Last Men?
2. The Last Breath
3. Orpheus, Imminence, the Backward Glance
4. The "Last to Speak," A Language for the Last Time?
To Conclude: Looking Back One Last Time?
Followed by
Between the Clock and the Bed: Edvard Munch's Final Confrontation
Index of Studied Works
Frédérique Toudoire-Surlapierre will be invited to present her book on November 11, 2007, as part of Cité Philo (Lille) during a roundtable discussion on the relationship between philosophy and literature. She will be joined by Pierre Brunel and Jacques Colette, author of the second volume in the "cf." series: Letters and Thought.
An excerpt from the book is available on the La Transparence website.
The concept of the final moment has long occupied a place in aesthetic and philosophical inquiry, intersecting with literary representations of endings, mourning, and terminal thresholds. In works examining the boundaries of expression, writers and critics frequently confront the paradox of articulating an experience that resists continuation. Frédérique Toudoire-Surlapierre explores themes related to tragedy, poetry, and the figure of the dying or the last to speak across various literary and cultural texts. The volume is published by Éditions de La Transparence as part of the "cf." series dedicated to essays in aesthetics.
Readers interested in literary studies concerning endings, transitions, and the relationship between literature and philosophy may find this volume relevant. The publication includes an accompanying text on Edvard Munch's final confrontation, reflecting on how creative output engages with closure. The book examines texts by various authors as noted in its index, addressing questions concerning the limits of language and the presence of what can no longer be undone.