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Edouard Levé's 'Suicide': A Posthumous Performativity

publication · 2026-04-23

Edouard Levé's final text, 'Suicide,' published posthumously in 2008, is examined in light of the author's own suicide days after submitting the manuscript. The work employs a 'tu' address to a childhood friend who shoots himself, which inevitably slides into a suicidal 'je' for Levé. The review connects this to his earlier series 'Angoisse' and statements from 'Journal' (2004) and 'Autoportrait' (2005), where he mused on suicide as a mode of living and dying. The book ends with a collection of tercets 'brief and condensed like your life,' discovered after death, closing with 'Happiness precedes me / Sadness follows me / Death awaits me.' The critic, Laurent Goumarre, recalls an writer who said 'Making poetry is committing suicide,' linking to Levé's 'Pornographie' series. In 2001, Levé had not begun writing; in 2002, he signed his first text 'Œuvres,' a catalogue of unrealized works, including number 529: 'The Treatise of Despair is read entirely by inspiring the words instead of expiring them. At the beginning, the voice seems exhausted. At the end, it really is.' The back cover of 'Suicide' is blank, a literal emptiness.

Key facts

  • Edouard Levé committed suicide days after sending the manuscript of 'Suicide' to his publisher.
  • The book 'Suicide' was published in 2008.
  • The text uses 'tu' to address a childhood friend who shoots himself.
  • Levé's earlier works include 'Angoisse' (photo series), 'Journal' (2004), and 'Autoportrait' (2005).
  • In 'Journal' (2004), Levé wrote: 'A score of people die in a suicide attack committed in a hotel in a seaside resort.'
  • In 'Autoportrait' (2005), Levé wrote: 'As a teenager I believed that Life A User's Manual would help me live, and Suicide A User's Manual to die.'
  • The book ends with a collection of tercets discovered after his death.
  • The final tercet reads: 'Happiness precedes me / Sadness follows me / Death awaits me.'
  • In 2001, Levé had not begun writing; in 2002, he signed his first text 'Œuvres'.
  • 'Œuvres' includes unrealized work number 529: 'The Treatise of Despair is read entirely by inspiring the words instead of expiring them.'
  • The back cover of 'Suicide' is blank.
  • The review was written by Laurent Goumarre for artpress.

Entities

Artists

  • Edouard Levé
  • Laurent Goumarre

Institutions

  • artpress

Sources