Mathilde Ramadier
ArlesMeet Mathilde Ramadier, a writer who holds a master's degree in philosophy from ENS...
Studies, readings, projects... Here is her account!
Could you introduce yourself? What are you currently doing?
In a nutshell, I write. I started with screenplays for graphic novels (ed. Dargaud and Futuropolis) just after finishing my studies in 2011, collaborating with various illustrators. I then branched out into other formats: essays (ed. Premier Parallèle, Actes Sud), short stories, articles, reportage and mood pieces for various outlets... I also translate essays and comic strips from English and German.
In a way I have drifted from philosophy without ever truly leaving it, as I move between the humanities. My books cover a range of subjects, but there is one constant: struggles and relationships of domination — essentially critiques touching on the world of work, ecology, and feminism. I moved to Berlin in 2011 after six years in Paris, and now divide my time between the German capital and Arles, a sublime small town of intense cultural activity to which I am deeply attached.
What memories do you have of your studies and your teachers?
I have excellent memories of my years studying in Paris, where I arrived at the age of 17. My path has been quite atypical, not very linear. To some it may look chaotic, but for me it was always marked by its own inner logic. Throughout, I kept in mind that I wanted to combine words and images, practice and theory.
After my baccalaureate in sciences, I enrolled at the Olivier de Serres art school to top up my qualifications in applied arts. I then specialised in graphic design with a BTS in visual communication with a publishing option — a sandwich course with an intense and exhausting rhythm. Having qualified as a graphic designer at twenty, I had the opportunity to continue my studies, and this time I wanted a less vocational course to feed my thirst for learning — to "do my humanities", as we used to say. So I entered the University of Paris VIII by equivalence, on a degree in plastic arts. From there, I set up camp in the library and completed a Master 1 in Aesthetics (specialising in contemporary art) and a Master 1 (research) in Psychoanalysis in the same year.
I owe a great deal to that open-minded university, and to its willingness to welcome atypical profiles like mine, coming from more technical backgrounds. Finally, in 2010, I was admitted to the École Normale Supérieure on the rue d'Ulm on the basis of an application file, for a Master 2 in contemporary philosophy run jointly with the EHESS.
I have remained on friendly terms with Roberto Barbanti, my philosophy professor at Paris VIII, with whom I regularly discuss ecology, and with Marc Crépon, my dissertation supervisor at the ENS, who has always supported and encouraged me and wrote the preface to my comic book on Sartre (Dargaud, 2015). More broadly, the bonds formed with certain teachers have always been decisive — whether in guiding my choices, helping me to progress, or simply building my self-confidence. I cannot imagine studying remotely, and I have little faith in MOOCs. Perhaps because I am a teacher's daughter...
Which philosophical book have you been particularly passionate about? Is there an author you fell in love with at first sight?
Like many young readers, I had my Sartre and Freud years, from secondary school through to the end of my studies. I think my encounter with psychoanalysis was a genuine shock — even though I have never stopped trying to free myself from it since (or at least I try; no one comes out unscathed). Like my career, I have not had just one love at first sight, but several more or less passionate or lasting relationships. So I have read widely: Jacques Lacan, Jacques Rancière, Bernard Stiegler, Michel Foucault, Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, Georges Didi-Huberman...
What are your projects and research interests?
At the moment I am trying to write a novel — though to be honest it is an extraordinarily difficult exercise. I often think back to something Sartre said: that for philosophy you could resort to stimulants, but that literature, on the other hand, had to remain "pure" — as if nothing could assist the writer hunched over a novel. That is how I too experience this long, solitary, almost masochistic marathon.
At the same time, I am increasingly drawn to feminism and the connections it can forge with ecology — that has been guiding my reading over recent months. I have a comic book and essay project under way, and I regularly return to France to take part in events, readings, and so on. I enjoy alternating between periods of solitude with my writing and very active periods of meetings, residencies, and new — sometimes unexpected — collaborations. That too is something philosophy taught me: keep your eyes open, listen, try and try again, and do not specialise too much...
Thank you, Mathilde, for sharing your story!
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