Violence And The Sacred

Description

Violence and the Sacred is Rene Girard's landmark study of human evil. Here Girard explores violence as it is represented and occurs throughout history, literature and myth. Girard's forceful and thought-provoking analyses of Biblical narrative, Greek tragedy and the lynchings and pogroms propagated by contemporary states illustrate his central argument that violence belongs to everyone and is at the heart of the sacred.

Promotion info

Rene Girard's landmark study of violence in Western culture, now available in the Bloomsbury Revelations series.

Author description

Rene Girard (1923-) was Andrew B. Hammond Professor Emeritus of French Language, Literature, and Civilization at Stanford University, USA, from 1981 to his retirement in 1995. A historian, literary critic and philosopher, he is the author of over 30 books including Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World.

Table of contents

Acknowledgements 1.Sacrifice 2.The Sacrificial Crisis 3.Oedipus and the Surrogate Victim 4.The Origins of Myth and Ritual 5.Dionysus 6.From Mimetic Desire to the Monstrous Double 7.Freud and the Oedipus Complex 8.Totem and Taboo and the Incest Prohibition 9.Levi-Strauss, Structuralism and the Marriage Laws 10.The Gods, the Dead, the Sacred and Sacrificial Substitution 11.The Unity of All Rites Conclusion Bibliography Index