Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World

Produktbeschreibung

Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World presents a highly original global theory of culture. Here, in his greatest work, René Girard explores the function of violence, mimetic desire and the mechanism of the scapegoat, in the history of society and religion. Girard's vision is a brilliant and devastating challenge to conventional views of literature, anthropology, philosophy and psychoanalysis. 

Inhaltsverzeichnis

BOOK I: FUNDAMENTAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Chapter 1: The Victimage Mechanism as the Basis of Religion
Acquisitive Mimesis and Mimetic Rivalry; The Function of the Law: Prohibiting
Imitation; The Function of Ritual: Imperative Mimesis; Sacrifice and the
Victimage Mechanism; The Theory of Religion

Chapter 2: The Development of Culture and Institutions
Variants in Ritual; Sacred Kingship and Central Power; The Polyvalence of Ritual
and the Specificity of Institutions; The Domestication of Animals and Ritual
Hunting; Sexual
Prohibitions and the Principle of Exchange; Death and Funeral Rites

Chapter 3: The Process of Hominization
Posing the Problem; Ethology and Ethnology; The Victimage Mechanism and
Hominization; The Transcendental Signifier

Chapter 4: Myth: The Invisibility of the Founding Murder
The 'Radical Elimination'; 'Negative Connotation', 'Positive Connotation';
Physical Signs of the Surrogate Victim

Chapter 5: Texts of Persecution
Persecution Demystified: The Achievement of the Modern and Western World; The
Double Semantic Sense of the Word 'Scapegoat'; The Historical Emergence of the
Victimage Mechanism


BOOK II: THE JUDAEO-CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES

Chapter 1: Things hidden since the Foundation of the World
Similarities between the Biblical Myths and World Mythology; The Distinctiveness
of the Biblical Myths; The Gospel Revelation of the Founding Murder

Chapter 2: A Non-Sacrificial Reading of the Gospel Text
Christ and Sacrifice; The Impossibility of the Sacrificial Reading; Apocalypse
and Parable; Powers and Principalities; The Preaching of the Kingdom; Kingdom
and Apocalypse; The Non-Sacrificial Death of Christ; The Divinity of Christ; The
Virgin Birth

Chapter 3: The Sacrificial Reading and Historical Christianity
Implications of the Sacrificial Reading; The Epistle to the Hebrews; The Death
of Christ and the End of the Sacred; Sacrifice of the Other and Sacrifice of the
Self; The Judgement of Solomon; A New Sacrificial Reading: The Semiotic
Analysis; The Sacrificial Reading and History; Science and Apocalypse

Chapter 4: The Logos of Heraclitus and the Logos of John
The Logos in Philosophy; The Two Types of Logos in Heidegger; Defining the
Johannine Logos in Terms of the Victim; 'In the Beginning . . .'; Love and
Knowledge


BOOK III: INTERDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY

Chapter 1: Mimetic Desire
Acquisitive Mimesis and Mimetic Desire; Mimetic Desire and the Modern World; The
Mimetic Crisis and the Dynamism of Desire; The Mimesis of Apprenticeship and the
Mimesis ofRivalry; Gregory Bateson's 'Double Bind'; From ObjectRivalry to
Metaphysical Desire

Chapter 2: Desire without Object
Doubles and Interdividuality; Symptoms of Alternation; The Disappearance of the
Object and Psychotic Structure;Hypnosis and Possession

Chapter 3: Mimesis and Sexuality
What is known as 'Masochism'; Theatrical 'Sado-Masochism'; Homosexuality;
Mimetic Latency and Rivalry; The End of Platonism in Psychology

Chapter 4: Psychoanalytic Mythology
Freud's Platonism and the Use of the Oedipal Archetype; How do you reproduce a
Triangle?; Mimesis and Representation; The Double Genesis of Oedipus; Why
Bisexuality?;
Narcissism: Freud's Desire; The Metaphors of Desire

Chapter 5: Beyond Scandal
Proust's Conversion; Sacrifice and Psychotherapy; Beyond the Pleasure Principle
and Structural Psychoanalysis; The DeathInstinct and Modern Culture; The
Skandalon

To Conclude

Notes

Bibliography

Index 

Kritik

Rene Girard's work is both a rationally articulated study and a prophetic vision of the hidden origins of culture and the nature of cultural processes. In its enormous, breathtaking scope it suggests the projects of those nineteenth century intellectual giants (Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud) who still cast long shadows today. By contrast, contemporary criticism seems paltry and faint-hearted. Comparative Literature 

Autoreninfo

Ren‚ Girard was the Andrew B. Hammond Professor Emeritus of French Language, Literature, and Civilization at Stanford University, USA.