Jacques Derrida's philosophical study "Politiques de l'amitié" (1994) and Thomas Bernhard's memoir "Wittgensteins Neffe" (1982) each question the substance of the word friendship in the era of survival in their own unique yet related ways. At stake is nothing less than language itself. The discourse on friendship is marked by contradictions: it celebrates presence yet is mostly an elegy for the survivor. It oscillates between reflexive-objective and poetic-transcendent writing. Only the one who has outlived the friend can raise the word. The triumph of survival (Canetti) and the guilt of survival (Levi) enter into a reciprocal relationship that enables truth while simultaneously causing horror. The book, a border crossing between close textual reading and essay, inductively follows the relationships between Bernhard's writings.