Abstract
" I didn't know what to call this last lecture, oscillating between the two paths I've been striving to follow throughout this last lecture cycle and for the penultimate hour again: a melancholy temptation, that of artists clamoring for a "second chance" to finally realize their masterpiece, and a redemptive hope, among those who accept that they are nothing more than the avatar of a lineage. A polarity that concerns not only creators, but perhaps teachers too. "
In his quest for a title for his closing lecture at the Collège de France in January 2021, Antoine Compagnon summons up his favorite authors - from Montaigne to Proust, via Chateaubriand and Baudelaire - and indulges in a series of variations on departure, cessation of activity, immortality.
