The book presents new metaphysical tendencies in 20th century French philosophy (1930s-1960s). Particular attention is given to the writings of Louis Lavelle, Ferdinand Alquié, Jean Wahl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Emmanuel Lévinas. The book provides clues as to how these thinkers have influenced more recent tendencies in French thought.

The questions the writer Samuel Beckett posed in his dramas, his prose and his poetry are the central questions asked by the most outstanding thinkers of modernity. This study is not only a precise literary analysis, but it also traces transformations in terms of subjectivity and tries to conceptualize them.