Mathilde Ramadier
ArlesHere we discover the background of Mathilde Ramadier, a writer who holds a master's degree in philosophy from ENS...
Studies, reading, projects... Here's her account!
Can you introduce yourself? What do you currently do?
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 several male and female cartoonists. Then I varied the formats: free essays (ed. Premier Parallèle, Actes Sud), short stories, articles, reports and mood pieces for various media... I also translate essays and comic strips from English and German.
I have in a way moved away from philosophy without ever leaving it as I navigate between the humanities. I deal with different subjects through my books, but let's say there is one constant: struggles and relationships of domination... Since they are essentially critiques of the world of work, ecology and feminism. I moved to Berlin in 2011 after living in Paris for six years and now divide my time between the German capital and Arles, a sublime little town with intense cultural activity, to which I am very attached.
What memories do you have of your studies? Of your teachers?
I have excellent memories of my years studying in Paris, where I arrived at the age of 17. My career path is very atypical, not very linear. To some, it may seem chaotic, but it was always marked by logical sequences for me. I always kept in mind that I wanted to combine words and images, practice and theory.
After a scientific baccalaureate, I entered the Olivier de Serres art school for an upgrade in applied arts. I then specialised in graphic design with a BTS in visual communication with a publishing option. It was a sandwich course, with a very intense and exhausting rhythm. Having graduated as a graphic designer at the age of 20, I had the opportunity to continue my studies and in this case I wanted to pursue a less professional 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 in a degree in plastic arts. From there, I pitched my tent in the BU and passed a Master 1 in Aesthetics (specialising in contemporary art) and a Master 1 (research) in Psychoanalysis in the same year.
I owe a lot to this tolerant University, to its openness, especially when faced with atypical profiles like mine, who come from more technical streams. Finally, in 2010, I entered the Ecole Normale Supérieure on the rue d'Ulm on the basis of an application, for a Master 2 in contemporary philosophy jointly with the EHESS.
I have kept up a friendly bond with Roberto Barbanti, my philosophy professor at Paris VIII, with whom I regularly talk about ecology, and with Marc Crépon, my dissertation director at the ENS, who has always supported and encouraged me, and prefaced my comic book on Sartre (Dargaud, 2015). Generally speaking, the links forged with certain teachers have always been decisive, whether they helped to guide my choices, help me progress or even build my self-confidence. I don't think I could study at a distance, and I have little faith in MOOCs. Maybe because I'm a teacher's daughter...
What philosophy book have you been particularly passionate about? The author you fell in love with at first sight?
I had my Sartre and Freud years, like a lot of young readers, from high school through to the end of their studies. I think my encounter with psychoanalysis was a real shock, even though I've never stopped emancipating myself from it since (at least I try to, you never get out unscathed). Just like my career, I haven't had just one love at first sight, but several more or less passionate or lasting relationships. So I've read a lot of Jacques Lacan, Jacques Rancière, Bernard Stiegler, Michel Foucault, Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, Georges Didi-Huberman....
What are your projects, your research work?
Currently I'm trying to write a novel, but to tell the truth it's an extremely difficult exercise. I often think back to the words of Sartre, who said that for philosophy, you could resort to drugs, but that literature, on the other hand, had to remain "pure". As if nothing could help the writer bent over his novel. That's how I see this long, solitary, almost masochistic marathon too.
At the same time, I'm turning more and more to feminism, and am interested in the links it can forge with ecology. That's what's been guiding my reading over the last few months. I have a comic book and essay project in progress, and regularly return to France to take part in meetings, readings and so on. I like to alternate between periods of solitude with my writing and very active social periods, made up of meetings, residencies and new collaborations, sometimes unexpected. That's what philosophy taught me too: open your eyes, listen, try and try again, and don't specialise (too much)...
Thank you Mathilde, for this testimonial!
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