Although Western philosophy has always defined man as both a speaking and a mortal being, according to Heidegger, "the essential relationship between death and language is still unthought of." In this early philosophical work, Giorgio Agamben documents the reading process of a seminar that tried to think about this "relationship of essence": eight days (and seven digressions) of intensive study with Hegel and Heidegger, Benveniste and Jakobson, Aimeric de Peguilhan and Leopardi, Leonardo and Aristotle, who repeatedly come across that other voice in which the meaningless, animal voices are "suspended.".