Authors: RENÉ GIRARD
is no competition for an object of desire.
B. Model-Rival.
Strictly speaking, if a model is a person in our immediate life setting (parent, authority figure, peer), then he or she is always potentially a rival. Likewise, a rival
in this same immediate setting is always basically a model, although this may not be apparent
to the subject. The model-rival is associated with an object of desire which the subject wants
to obtain, but the important thing is not as much the object as the defeat of the model-rival.
Continually putting oneself in situations of rivalry may be exhilarating if one is winning, but
losing may lead to extreme depression. The situation becomes a crisis if the person is
entrapped in a model-obstacle relationship.
C. Model-Obstacle.
The model-obstacle is someone or something over whom the subject
cannot
win, or in some cases it would be accurate to say that the subject
will not allow
himself
to defeat the modelobstacle, for to achieve that would be to lose the model. All sorts of self-defeating behavior, including addictions (so well described in Dostoyevsky's
writings), stem from this predicament. From the standpoint of the mimetic theory, it can only
be understood in terms of the mimetic, interdividual character of human existence. The
person in this predicament could be described as stumbling over or being blocked by the
skandalon
. The
skandalon
of the Gospels is a an obstacle or stumblingblock (the older
meaning of "scandal" in English and French, from the Latin and Greek). The
skandalon
is associated with Satan. This is seen
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particularly, e.g., in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus has spoken of his suffering, death, and
resurrection, and Peter rebukes him for saying he will suffer and die. Jesus in turn rebukes
Peter: "Get behind me, Satan! You are a skandalon to me . . ." ( Matt. 16:23). That is, "you are a scandal, an obstacle, a hindrance to me." Here Satan, usually named as the
personification of the mimetic model-obstacle, is "deconstructed" or "demythologized" in that Jesus uses the name to express the mimetic rivalry that obsesses Peter. Peter wants to identify
himself with a worldly winner and in anger he begins telling his master what he can and
cannot do. Something quite similar is reported concerning James and John, who ask to be
Jesus's chief lieutenants when he comes into his glory ( Mark 10:35-45; Matt. 20:20-28).
Religion.
Indistinguishable from culture in archaic societies. It is that generative and
protective aspect of culture that serves to control mimetic desire and violence through
sacrifice (see Mimesis and Sacrifice), which is at the center of ritual and closely connected to
prohibition and myth (see both under Scapegoat/Scapegoating). The violence at the heart of
the traditional sacred is therefore twofold: the negative sacred of the collective violence that
is associated with the dangerous aspects of the god or the hero, which may become split off
into a devil or demon or trickster; and the positive sacred that is associated with the formation
and maintenance of order.
Ritual.
See Sacrifice and Scapegoat/Scapegoating.
Sacrifice.
see also Scapegoat/Scapegoating.
A. Sacrifice
-- its primary sense. Sacrifice stems from originary victimization or
scapegoating. It refers first and primarily to the ritual immolation of a human or animal
victim. Girard holds it likely that humans were the first sacrificial victims
, 2. a
nd only subsequently were animals substituted, and eventually various objects as gifts.
B. Sacrifice
-- its positive sense, primarily in the case of Christ. In recent years Girard has begun to affirm, or at least make explicit, a positive, derived sense of "sacrificial" as the willingness to give of oneself to others and to commit oneself to God, not for
sadomasochistic purposes (i.e., to inflict injury on others or oneself, ostensibly for the sake of
faith), but out of love and faithfulness to the other.
C. Sacrifice and Atonement or Redemption.
The word "sacrifice," if retained in the
derived, positive sense, should be understood as having its basis in faith in a God of love who
does not make a secret pact
____________________
2. In French and German the word for victim is also the word for a human or animal
sacrifice:
la victime
and
das Opfer
.
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with his Son that calls for his murder in order to satisfy God's wra
th. 3. T
he suffering and death of the Son, the Word, are inevitable because of the inability of the world to receive God
or his Son, not because God's justice demands violence or the Son relishes the prospect of a
horrible execution.
Satan.
See also Model-Obstacle under Model/Mediator. Aside from the question whether
Satan refers to an objective transcendent reality, in the mimetic scapegoat theory the name
refers to the personification of the rivalrous mimesis, the mimesis engendering accusation
and violence. But this is also the mimesis that is effective in subduing violence and
maintaining order. Satan is thus the
archē
, the "beginning" in the sense of the spirit of rivalry and accusation responsible for the originary murder; and the
archōn
, the prince or ruler of
this world. As the ruler of the world of order, as the principle of
Realpolitik
, he is elegantly and beautifully described by Dostoyevsky through Ivan Karamazov's Grand Inquisitor legend
in
The Brothers Karamazov
. The Christian revelation exposes Satan as "the father of lies" by disclosing not only the innocence of one victim, Jesus, but of all victims. Satan attempts to
cast out Satan through murder, especially collective violence, but he is defeated by the Cross.
This defeat is accomplished because the disciples, with the aid of the Paraclete, the Spirit of
God as defender of the falsely accused, break away from the mimetic consensus of the social
order that is undergirded and constantly regenerated by the scapegoat mechanism.
Scapegoat/Scapegoating.
The age-old way of gaining release from the violence or potential
violence that mimesis produces is through nonconscious convergence upon a victim.
A. Scapegoating and Culture.
As noted above (see Culture), culture stems from the
disorder, the actual or potential violence that is experienced when mimetic desire gets out of
hand and the hominids in the process of becoming human make the discovery that
convergence upon a victim brings them unanimity and thus relief from violence.
B. Scapegoating and Sacrifice.
Both sacrifice and rituals of scapegoating represent, in
camouflaged form, the disorder resulting in the originary violence of immolation or expulsion
of the victim and the order stemming from the newly found relief from conflict and violence.
C. Double Transference.
This disorder and order are the function of the
double transference
of the originary victimization: those involved in the collective violence transfer the disorder
and the offenses producing it to the victim, but they transfer also their newly found peace to the victim, ascribing to him or her the power that brings it about.
____________________
3.
Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World
, 184.
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D. Prohibition.
Prohibition in its basic, originary sense is the taboo of the alleged offense of the victim/scapegoat, the crime that is blamed for the mimetic crisis. The two universal
prohibitions are parricide and incest, which are often attributed, whether spontaneously or
more formally in ritual and myth, to gods, heroes, and supernatural beings, who represent the
disguised form of the victim.
E. Myth.
Myth is narrative centered in scapegoat events. Myth was probably developed
much later than ritual and prohibition and offers the greatest possibility of displacement and
disguise because its verbal, narrative character is a stage well beyond the reflexive imitation
of the earliest forms of sacrifice and prohibition.
F. Scapegoat Mechanism.
As Girard states in the concluding interview, "scapegoat
mechanism" means basically and simply a generative scapegoat principle which works
unconsciously in culture and society. He quotes Peter in Acts: "And now, brothers, I know
that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God announced beforehand by
the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled. So repent, and
turn again . . ." ( Acts 3:17-19a).
Skandalon.
See Model-Obstacle under Model/Mediator.
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Bibliography
Works by René Girard
This bibliography includes all of Girard's books, contributions to collective works, and
articles in French and English as of May 1996.
Books
Mensonge romantique et vérité romanesque
. Paris: Grasset, 1961.
Proust: A Collection of Critical Essays
(ed.). New York: Prentice-Hall, 1962.
Dostoievski: du double à l'unité
. Paris: Plon, 1963.
Deceit, Desire and the Novel: Self and Other in Literary Structure
. Baltimore, London: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1966. (Trans. of
Mensonge romantique
.)
La Violence et le sacré
. Paris: Grasset, 1972.
Critique dans un souterrain
.
Collection "Amers." Lausanne: l'Age d'Homme
, 1976.
Violence and the Sacred
. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977. (Trans. of
La
Violence et le sacré
.)
Des Cboses cachées dupuis la fondation du monde: Recberches avec Jean-Michel
Oughourlian et Guy Lefort
. Paris: Grasset, 1978.
"To Double Business Bound": Essays on Literature, Mimesis and Anthropology
. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978.
Le Bouc émissaire
. Paris: Grasset, 1982.
La Route antique des hommes pervers
. Paris: Grasset, 1985.
The Scapegoat
. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986. (Trans. of
Le Bouc
émissaire
).
Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World: Research Undertaken in Collaboration
with Jean-Michel Ougbourlian and Guy Lefort
. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press,
1987. (Trans. of
Des Choses cachées
.)
Job, the Victim of his People
. London: Athlone Press, 1987. (Trans. of
La Route antique
.)
Shakespeare: Les feux de l'envie
. Paris: Grasset, 1990. (Trans. of
A Theater of Envy
.)
A Theater of Envy: William Shakespeare
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Quand ces choses commenceront . . . Entretiens avec Michel Treguer
. Paris: arléa, 1994.
Resurrection from the Underground: Feodor Dostoevsky
. New York: Crossroad,
forthcoming. (Trans. of
Dostoievski
.)
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Contributions to Collective Works
"Existentialism and Criticism."
Yale French Studies 16
( 1956): 45-52.
"
Duc de Saint-Simon
." In
A Critical Bibliography of French Literature 3
, ed. D. C. Cabeen and J. Brody, 332, 336-41. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1961.
"General Studies on the Novel." In
A Critical Bibliography of French Literature 3
, ed. D. C.
Cabeen and J. Brody, 125-29. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1961.
"Introduction." In
Proust: A Collection of Critical Essays
, ed. René Girard, 112. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1962.
"Existentialism and Criticism." In
Sartre: A Collection of Critical Essays
, ed. Edith Kern, 121-28. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1962.
"
A propos de Jean-Paul Sartre: rupture et création littéraire
." In
Chemins actuels de la
critique
, ed. G. Poulet. Paris: Plon, 1967.
"
La notion de structure en critique littéraire
." In
Quatre conférences sur la nouvelle critique
, 61-73. Turin: Società Editrice Internationale, 1968.
"Triangular Desire." In Stendhall Red and Black, ed. Robert M. Adams, 50321. New York:
Norton, 1969.
"Explication de texte de Jean-Paul Sartre." In
Explication de textes II
, ed. Jean Sareil , 175-91. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1970.
"
Une analyse d'Oedipe Roi
."
In Critique sociologique et critique psychanalytique
, ed.
Institute de Sociologie, Univ. Libre de Bruxelles, 127-63. Brussels, 1970.
"Tiresias and the Critic (Introduction)."
In The Languages of Criticism and the Sciences of
Man
, ed. Richard Macksey and Eugenio Donato, 15-21. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1970.
"
Stendhal et les problèmes de noblesse
." In
Stendhal: Textes recueillis et présentés par J. P.
Bardos
, 151-169. Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1970.
"
La grâce romanesque
." In
Les critiques de notre temps et Proust
, ed. Jacques Bersani , 134-39. Paris: Garnier, 1971.
"
Introduction to 'De la folie
.'
"In L'esprit moderne dans la littérature française
, ed. Reinhard Kuhn, 59-64. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972.
"Myth and Ritual in A Midsummer Night's Dream." In
Memorial Lectures
, ed. Harry F.