Conversations with René Girard

Prophet of Envy

René Girard, Cynthia L. Haven

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781350075160
• eBook ISBN:
  9781350075153
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy of Religion

French theorist René Girard was one of the major thinkers of the twentieth century. Read by international leaders, quoted by the French media, Girard influenced such writers as J.M. Coetzee and Milan Kundera. Dubbed "the new Darwin of the human sciences" and one of the most compelling thinkers of the age, Girard spent nearly four decades at Stanford exploring what it means to be human and making major contributions to philosophy, literary criticism, psychology and theology with his mimetic theory.

This is the first collection of interviews with Girard, one that brings together discussions on Cervantes, Dostoevsky, and Proust alongside the causes of conflict and violence and the role of imitation in human behavior. Granting important insights into Girard's life and thought, these provocative and lively conversations underline Girard's place as leading public intellectual and profound theorist.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction: Socrates in the Digital Age
• Chapter 1: “There Are Real Victims Behind the Text.”
• Chapter 2: Opera and Myth
• Chapter 3: Technological Power in the Post-Sacrificial World
• Chapter 4: The Logic of the Undecidable
• Chapter 5: Violence, Difference, Sacrifice
• Chapter 6: “Revelation Is Dangerous. It’s the Spiritual Equivalent of Nuclear Power.”
• Chapter 7: “What Is Happening Today Is Mimetic Rivalry on a Global Scale.”
• Chapter 8: How Should Mimetic Theory Be Applied?
• Chapter 9: Shakespeare: Mimesis and Desire
• Chapter 10: Why Do We Fight? How Do We Stop?
• Chapter 11: “War Is Everywhere.”
• Chapter 12: “I Have Always Tried to Think Inside an Evolutionary Framework.”
• Chapter 13: The J’Accuse of René Girard: The Audacious Ideas of a Great Thinker
• Chapter 14: The J’Accuse of René Girard: The Audacious Ideas of a Great Thinker
• Chapter 15: Apocalyptic Thinking After 9/11
• Chapter 16: “I Am First and Foremost a Social Scientist.”
• Chapter 17: “Christianity Will Be Victorious, But Only in Defeat.”
• Postscript: “René Girard Never Played the Great Man,” Says Biographer
• Chronology
• Acknowledgments
• Bibliography
• Contributors
• Index