Marianne Massin's 'Les figures du ravissement' Published by Grasset/Le Monde

The essay 'Les figures du ravissement' by Marianne Massin has been published as part of the 'Partage du savoir' collection, sponsored by Edgar Morin. This series annually selects doctoral theses for broader commercial publication, a rare risk for major publishers. Massin's work explores art and philosophy 'in the face of rapture,' examining how creative and reflective works both resist and embrace this limit-experience of consciousness. The text functions as a manifesto defending thought that arises from risk, trial, and the acceptance of rapture. It traces a lineage from Plato to Bataille, and from Titian to Picasso, with stops at Dante, Rabelais, Raphael, and Correggio. Notable analysis focuses on the figure of the silenus and the flaying of Marsyas before Apollo, depicting a stripping that is both atrocious and sublime, where pagan myth prefigures Christian martyrdom. This sheds light on Michelangelo's enigmatic self-portrait in his 'Last Judgment.' The review is by Philippe Forest.