Violence and the Sacred: René Girard

For over half a century René Girard's publications have changed the way we look at the origins of humanity, relationships, meaning-making, and, more particularly, conflict and reconciliation.

Violence and the Sacred (1972) is René Girard's landmark study of human evil. Analyzing the underlying mechanisms and structures of violence in literature, myth, and society--from Biblical narratives and Oedipus Rex, to indigenous tribes and contemporary states--Girard probes the psychological dimensions of both generative and reciprocal violence. Through his explorations of scapegoats and sacrifices, plagues and crisis response, he finds that violence belongs to everyone and resides in the heart of the sacred.

He explores literary elements of mirroring, repetition, and the "monstrous double," concluding that "All sacred creatures partake of monstrosity, whether overtly or covertly," and presenting his famous thesis that mimetic desire inevitably leads to violence.

We will read:
Chapter 1, "The Sacrifice"
Chapter 2, "The Sacrificial Crisis"
Chapter 4, "The Origins of Myth and Ritual"
Chapter 10, "The Gods, the Dead, the Sacred, and Sacrificial Substitution"
Chapter 11, "The Unity of All Rites"

Violence and the Sacred:

• pdf

Supplemental:

• "The Scapegoat: The Ideas of René Girard" (5 parts)
• "Entitled Opinions" interview with René Girard, part 1
• "Entitled Opinions" interview with René Girard, part 2
• A Girardian Reading of Billy Budd

Extracts:

• "...in those islands where human sacrifices are offered, the Tullas are deemed the most suitable oblations for the altar, to which from their birth many are prospectively devoted." (Mardi, 1.49)
• "...the motley retinue showed that they took that sort of pride...which the Assyrian priests doubtless showed for their grand sculptured Bull when the faithful prostrated themselves." ("Billy Budd")
• "The [Nore Mutiny] is known, and without exaggeration in the epithet, as “the Great Mutiny.” It was indeed a demonstration more menacing to England than the contemporary manifestoes and conquering and proselyting armies of the French Directory." ("Billy Budd")
• "In a crisis...the flag of founded law and freedom defined, [had been transmuted] into the enemy’s red meteor of unbridled and unbounded revolt. Reasonable discontent growing out of practical grievances in the fleet had been ignited into irrational combustion as by live cinders blown across the Channel from France in flames." ("Billy Budd")

This meetup is part of a series on Japan Unbolted.