Introduction: Rene Girard's Legacy

This essay provides an overview of the thought of the French literary and cultural theorist René Girard. It begins with his theorisation of ‘mimetic desire,’ the explanatory hypothesis Girard employs to theorise interpersonal relations. From there, the it moves on to discuss the scapegoat or ‘victimage' mechanism, Girard’s model for how cultural and religious formation takes place through the banishment or lynching of a victim. This event – or series of events – functions to initiate and sustain cultural stability. It then considers the relationship between the Judeo-Christian scriptures and the scapegoat mechanism, looking at Girard’s depiction of the Bible as representing a critique and unveiling of violence, especially those forms of violence unconsciously used in the service of social unification.

The Philosophical Journal of Conflict and Violence, 2017

English translation of R. Girard's interview for the french online journal Certitudes in 2005.

Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture, 2010

What was René Girard's attitude towards philosophy? What philosophers influenced him? What stance did he take in the philosophical debates of his time? What are the philosophical questions raised by René Girard's anthropology? In this interview, Paul Dumouchel sheds light on these issues.

Journal of Religion , 2003

Forum Philosophicum, 2019

René Girard’s work often seems suspect to liberals, because it appears as a totalizing narrative. Such hesitancy with respect to either dismissing or endorsing it follows from the demise of “grand narratives” that brought with them imperialistic and hegemonic tendencies. Yet if a liberal viewpoint does not embrace Girard, it is for different reasons that conservatives are either fully supportive of his thought as promising a return to religious values or hesitant about accepting his theories because they critique a form of violence inherent to any community. Girardian thought, it can be argued, has focused on deconstructing mythological justifications for violent activity at the expense of establishing a fruitful position regarding positive communal formations. The tensions between these juxtaposed liberal and conservative viewpoints, as taken up in this article, illustrate an impasse between deconstructivist-genealogists (representing trends within liberal discourse) and communitar...

Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 2010

Stirling: We would appreciate it if you would tell us a little bit about your family background and your education in France and then how you ended up immigrating to the United States. Girard: I was born in Avignon on Christmas day, 1923. I am the second son of a family of four. My father was curator of the museum, of the library. The museum is a kind of foundation, a private foundation of an eighteenth-century collector who had a library, which is the basis of the public library in Avignon; but my father created the first lending library in Avignon, which is part of the library. He was very active; he was very dedicated to his work. In France, a job like that is a state job. You are a functionnaire, which means a city servant. My father had been a student at l'École des Chartes in Paris, which is where I went to the university during the war. Stirling: I think I read once that your father was more of an agnostic, whereas your mother was more of a believer? Girard: Yes, this is true. My father was the typical French agnostic. He was a member of what they called the Radical Socialistic Party, which is a party of the right. Stirling: Where did you attend school? Girard: I was at the Lycée d'Avignon, which is a public school with Latin and Greek. I have some kind of phobia of educational institutions, and it started when I was about ten. I was scared to

Studies in Social and Political Thought, 2007

Forum Philosophicum, 2020

This article contains a discussion on René Girard’s understanding of the positive sides of imitation—despite the ambivalent nature of desire. Historically speaking, the discovery of the scapegoat mechanism made a great contribution towards limiting violence. The decomposition of the scapegoat mechanism, and its power to find non-violent alternatives, has paved the way for a culture with numerous opportunities. Even if humans constantly rival one another, one must understand and define the close relationship between competition, cooperation, and rivalry. To be able to see the positive sides of mimesis, one needs to have a robust understanding of human nature as competitive and, thereby, see friendship and competition as closely related. Learning and creativity can actually become optimal when there is a high degree of competition. Fierce competition today is allowed because of the taboo against violence. The decomposition of myth has destroyed archaic societies but, at the same time,...

ARCHIWUM HISTORII FILOZOFII I MYŚLI SPOŁECZNEJ • ARCHIVE OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIAL THOUGHT VOL. 64/2019 , 2019

In his anthropology René Girard focuses on human collectivities. His main concern are – as the French thinker declares – human relations, which are subject to a deep crisis related to the cultural changes of late modernity. In his last major work, Battling to the End, Girard foretells an apocalyptic conclusion of the (failed) process of hominization. Meanwhile, the status of human individuality and autonomy in his thought is, to say the least, problematic. The essay puts under scrutiny Girard’s radical skepticism in this respect, as well as his sweeping critique of individualism, without losing sight of his insistence on Christian Revelation – as an anti-myth, disclosing the truth about victimary mechanisms – being the only possible source of the conversion of humans.