René Girard

René Girard
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Name	René Girard
Caption	Girard in 2007
Birth date	25 December 1923
Birth place	Avignon, France
Death date	4 November 2015
Death place	Stanford, California, United States
Alma mater	École des Chartes, Indiana University
Occupation	Philosopher, anthropologist, literary critic, historian
Known for	Mimetic theory, Scapegoating, Biblical hermeneutics
Institutions	Indiana University, Johns Hopkins University, State University of New York at Buffalo, Stanford University
Awards	Académie française (Seat 37), Order of the Legion of Honour, Guggenheim Fellowship

René Girard. A French-born American historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science, he is renowned for developing a sweeping interdisciplinary theory of human behavior and culture known as mimetic theory. His work, which spans analyses of novels, Greek mythology, and the Bible, posits that imitation is the foundational mechanism of human desire, leading to rivalry, conflict, and the resolution of crises through collective violence against a scapegoat. Elected to the Académie française in 2005, his ideas have profoundly influenced fields ranging from anthropology and theology to economics and political science.

Biography

Born in Avignon, he initially pursued a career in medieval studies at the prestigious École des Chartes in Paris before moving to the United States for a PhD in history at Indiana University. His academic career in American universities included formative periods at Duke University, Bryn Mawr College, and a pivotal professorship at Johns Hopkins University, where he helped organize the influential 1966 conference on The Languages of Criticism and the Sciences of Man. He later held positions at the State University of New York at Buffalo before spending the majority of his career as a professor at Stanford University, where he remained until his retirement and was instrumental in founding the Stanford Humanities Center. His later years were marked by numerous honors, including induction into the Académie française and receipt of the Order of the Legion of Honour.

Mimetic theory

Girard's central contribution, mimetic theory, argues that human desire is not autonomous but is fundamentally mimetic, or imitative, learned by observing the desires of a model he termed the "mediator." This theory was first fully articulated in his seminal work, *Deceit, Desire, and the Novel*, where he analyzed the novels of authors like Dostoevsky, Stendhal, and Proust. He later expanded this framework in *Violence and the Sacred*, applying it to the origins of culture and religion, arguing that mimetic rivalry escalates into a crisis of undifferentiation, threatening the entire social order. This process, he contended, can be observed in foundational texts from Greek tragedy to Shakespearean drama.

Scapegoating and sacrifice

Girard proposed that societies resolve mimetic crises through the "scapegoat mechanism," where collective violence is spontaneously directed against an arbitrary victim, whose death or expulsion restores social peace and unity. This founding murder, he argued, becomes sacralized and hidden within the rituals and myths of what he termed "archaic religion." His analysis in *Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World* posits that institutions like sacrifice, taboo, and mythology are cultural formations designed to manage and conceal this generative violence. He drew evidence from anthropological studies of ritual and classical texts like Sophocles' *Oedipus Rex*.

Biblical hermeneutics and Christianity

In his later work, Girard turned explicitly to the Judeo-Christian scriptures, arguing that the Bible, particularly the Gospels, uniquely demystifies the scapegoat mechanism by siding with the innocent victim, from Joseph to the Suffering Servant in Isaiah to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. He asserted that the Christian revelation unveils the violent foundations of human culture and offers an escape from the cycle of mimetic rivalry through the imitation of Christ's non-violent love. This theological turn brought him into dialogue with thinkers like Raymund Schwager and influenced a movement known as "Girardian theology," while also generating debate within the Catholic Church and among scholars like John Milbank.

Literary criticism and influence

As a literary critic, his method of "textual anthropology" revealed the dynamics of mimetic desire and scapegoating in Western literature. Beyond his early work on the novel, his readings of Shakespeare in *A Theater of Envy* and his analysis of Dostoevsky are particularly noted. His theories have inspired a wide range of writers and critics, including the novelist and philosopher J. M. Coetzee, the literary theorist Eric Gans who developed "generative anthropology," and the social critic Andrew Feenberg. His ideas also provided a framework for the Stanford-based research group known as the Colloquium on Violence and Religion.

Reception and legacy

Girard's work has generated significant and diverse reception, from enthusiastic adoption in fields like theology and cultural studies to skepticism from parts of the academic anthropology establishment. Organizations like the Imitatio foundation, funded by Peter Thiel, have been established to promote and fund research based on his theories. His concepts of mimetic desire have been applied to analyze phenomena in behavioral economics, marketing, and international conflict, influencing thinkers such as the philosopher Jean-Pierre Dupuy. The annual meeting of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion continues to be a major forum for the discussion and development of his interdisciplinary insights.

Category:French anthropologists Category:American literary critics Category:Stanford University faculty Category:Académie française members