All Desire is a Desire for Being, page 33
2009
On 8 December, Girard receives a doctorat honoris causa from the Institut Catholique de Paris.
2013
On 25 January, King Juan Carlos of Spain awards him the Order of Isabella the Catholic, a Spanish civil order bestowed for his ‘profound attachment’ to ‘Spanish culture as a whole’.
2015
On 4 November, Girard dies at his home on the Stanford campus.
Books by René Girard
Note: Works are given first in English translation, but are in chronological order of original publication.
1961 Deceit, Desire and the Novel: Self and Other in Literary Structure (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1965). (Mensonge romantique et vérité romanesque [Paris: Grasset]).
1962 Proust: A Collection of Critical Essays (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall).
1963 Resurrection from the Underground: Feodor Dostoevsky (New York: Crossroad, 1997). (Dostoïevski, du double à l’unité [Paris: Plon]).
1972 Violence and the Sacred (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977). (La violence et le sacré [Paris: Grasset]).
1976 Critique dans un souterrain (Lausanne: L’Age d’Homme).
1978 To Double Business Bound: Essays on Literature, Mimesis, and Anthropology (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press).
1978 Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World: Research Undertaken in Collaboration with J.-M. Oughourlian and G. Lefort (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1987). (Des choses cachées depuis la fondation du monde [Paris: Grasset]).
1982 The Scapegoat (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986). (Le Bouc émissaire [Paris: Grasset]).
1985 Job, the Victim of his People (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1987). (La Route antique des hommes pervers [Paris: Grasset]).
1991 A Theatre of Envy: William Shakespeare (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press).
1994 When These Things Begin: Conversations with Michel Treguer (East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2014). (Quand ces choses commenceront … Entretiens avec Michel Treguer [Paris: Arléa]).
1996 The Girard Reader, ed. James G. Williams (New York: Crossroad).
1999 I See Satan Fall Like Lightning (Maryknoll, MD: Orbis Books, 2001). (Je vois Satan tomber comme l’éclair [Paris: Grasset]).
2001 The One by Whom Scandal Comes (East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2014). (Celui par qui le scandale arrive, ed. Maria Stella Barberi [Paris: Desclée de Brouwer]).
2003 Sacrifice (East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2011). (Le Sacrifice [Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France]).
2004 Evolution and Conversion. Dialogues on the Origins of Culture, with Pierpaolo Antonello and João Cezar de Castro Rocha (London: Continuum, 2008). (Les Origines de la culture. Entretiens avec Pierpaolo Antonello et João Cezar de Castro Rocha [Paris: Desclée de Brouwer]).
2004 Oedipus Unbound: Selected Writings on Rivalry and Desire, ed. Mark R. Anspach (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press).
2006 Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith: A Dialogue (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2010). (Verità o fede debole: Dialogo su cristianesimo e relativismo, with Gianni Vattimo, ed. Pierpaolo Antonello [Massa: Transeuropa]).
2007 Battling to the End (East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2010). (Achever Clausewitz [Paris: Éditions Carnets Nord]).
2008 Anorexia (East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2013). (Anoréxie et desir mimétique [Paris: Éditions de L’Herne]).
2008 Mimesis and Theory: Essays on Literature and Criticism, 1953–2005 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press).
Acknowledgments
René Girard was fortunate in many ways. Here’s one: in his first year at Indiana University, the Frenchman stumbled on a Scottish name during roll call – Martha McCullough. He solved the problem when he married her in 1951, and she became Martha Girard. His choice was a blessing that would have far-reaching consequences for his legacy.
My personal gratitude to Martha Girard is longstanding. Her calm, courtesy and common sense were a consistent source of support for my earlier books, including Evolution of Desire: A Life of René Girard; Conversations with René Girard: Prophet of Envy; and now this one, All Desire Is a Desire for Being.
French academician Michel Serres addressed these words to her at the Académie Française in 2005:
You embody the virtues we admire over the centuries, in the culture of your country: faithfulness, constancy, strength, fair-mindedness, fineness in sensing the feelings of others, devotion, dynamically and lucidly facing the things of life. Few people know that without you, without your inimitable presence, the great theories … assuredly would not have seen the light of day.fn1
There are many others to thank for this volume, published on the centenary of the French theorist’s birth. Stefan McGrath, managing director of Penguin Press, extended the invitation to create this anthology for the Penguin Classics series, and Emmy Yoneda, publishing coordinator at Penguin Press, labored alongside me throughout the process. Editorial manager Anna Wilson also has my gratitude. It was a pleasure to be on the Penguin team.
I owe personal thanks to Stanford’s Prof. Robert Pogue Harrison, a longtime friend of René Girard and a wise expositor of his work. I am also grateful to Dana Gioia, whose encouragement and guidance has been a steady light for more than two decades.
Thanks also to Mary Pope Osborne, Paul Caringella, Luke Burgis, William Johnsen and Artur Sebastian Rosman.
Edward Haven, chair of philosophy in Los Medanos College, helped me winnow the René Girard maxims during a long weekend in the East Bay – a task that included three others: Mark Anspach, who weighed in from far away Bologna (while also translating his essay and interview for this volume); Trevor Cribben Merrill in Los Angeles; and also George A. Dunn in Indianapolis, who worked heroically on the index as well. I am indebted to all for judicious suggestions and insight.
Finally, appreciation always to Imitatio for its financial support for this endeavor.
Cynthia L. Haven
Stanford, California
25 November 2022
Sources and Copyright
‘Conflict’ originally appeared in Stanford Magazine, Winter 1986, p. 60. © Courtesy of the René Girard Estate.
‘Violence and Foundational Myths in Human Societies’ originally published in Le Monde as ‘Violence et mythes fondateurs des sociétés humaines’ on November 20 2008. © Mimetic Research Association.
‘The Indispensable Victim in Oedipus the King’, René Girard’s preface, published in Mark Anspach’s OEdipe mimétique, Éditions de L’Herne, 2010. ‘A Crisis, a Plague, a Culprit: On the Innocence of Oedipus’ originally published as ‘Entretien avec René Girard’ in Mark Anspach’s OEdipe mimétique, Éditions de L’Herne, 2010. Copyright © Éditions de L’Herne.
‘The Founding Murder in the Philosophy of Nietzsche’ published in English in Paul Dumouchel, ed., Violence and Truth: On the Work of René Girard, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988. © Courtesy of the René Girard Estate.
‘Camus’s Stranger Retried’ © Courtesy of the René Girard Estate. Originally appeared in PMLA 79 (December 1964) pp. 519–33.
‘Myth and Ritual in Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ © Courtesy of the René Girard Estate. Originally delivered as the Harry Camp Lecture at Stanford, November 1972. In Textual Strategies: Perspectives in Post-Structuralist Criticism, ed. Josué V. Harari, pp. 29–45. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1979.
‘Collective Violence and Sacrifice in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Originally published in Salmagundi 88/89, 1990, pp. 399–419. © Courtesy of the René Girard Estate.
‘Scandal and the Dance: Salome in the Gospel of Mark’ published in Ballet Review, Winter 1983, pp. 66–76. © Courtesy of the René Girard Estate.
‘Peter’s Denial and the Question of Mimesis’, Vol. 14, 1982 Notre Dame Journal. © Courtesy of the René Girard Estate.
‘The Totalitarian Trial’ and ‘Retribution’ originally published in Job: The Victim of His People, London: Athlone Press, 1987 (pp. 111–23). © Courtesy of the René Girard Estate.
‘A Method, a Life, a Man’ originally appeared in When These Things Begin: Conversations with Michel Treguer, 2014, published by Michigan State University Press. © Michigan State University Press.
‘Violence and Religion: Cause or Effect?’ originally appeared in The Hedgehog Review, Vol. 6, No. 1, Spring 2004: used with permissions. Copyright © The Hedgehog Review.
‘Belonging’. This essay was first delivered as a speech in Italy. Original French edition Politiques de Caïn: En dialogue avec René Girard © Desclée de Brouwer 2004 (Les appartenances, pp. 19–33). Appeared in English in Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture, Vol. 23, No. 1, Spring 2016. Translation copyright © Michigan State University Press
‘On Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ’ published in Le Figaro Magazine in March 2004 under the title ‘A propos du film de Mel Gibson, La Passion du Christ’. Translated into English by Robert Doran and published by Anthropoetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology (Spring/Summer 2004), courtesy of the René Girard Estate.
‘The Mystic of Neuilly’ published without title in Le Tragique et la Pitié (Le Pommier) and also in the 16 December 2005, edition of Le Monde. © Le Pommier.
‘Victims, Violence and Christianity’ originally delivered as the Martin D’Arcy Lecture at Oxford, November 1997. Originally published in The Month (April 1998): p. 132. © Courtesy of the René Girard Estate.
‘Literature and Christianity: A Personal View’ © Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. René Girard was speaking in December 1998 at the Christianity and Literature session of the Modern Language Association’s national convention in San Francisco. This article first appeared in Philosophy and Literature, Vol. 23, No. 1, April 1999.
Index
The page references in this index correspond to the print edition from which this ebook was created, and clicking on them will take you to the location in the ebook where the equivalent print page would begin. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.
animals 5, 29, 132, 147, 190, 192, 194, 197, 246, 282
animal images and metaphor 81–82, 83, 91–2
À bout de souffle (film) 69
À la recherche du temps perdu/In Search of Lost Time (Proust) 214, 268
Abel see Cain and Abel
Abraham 20
Académie Française xii
Acts of the Apostles 186
Aeneid (Virgil) 261
Aeschylus 168
The Persians 168
The Suppliants 168
Ahriman 53
Ahura Mazda see Ormazd
Alison, James 185
Amazonian myth 18–19
America see United States of America
Anaximander 265
Anderson, Peter S. 110
Annunciation 236
Anspach, Mark 15–20
Œdipe mimétique 9
anthropology x, 13, 35, 246
the art of the novel as x
Antichrist 171, 180
The Anti-Christ (Nietzsche) 37
Antigone (Sophocles) 153–4
anti-Semitism 217, 218
Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare) 250
apocalypse 40, 172, 179, 253, 280, 282
Apocalypse (Book of Revelation) 238
Apollo 11, 83
Aristotle 137, 149
art 56, 60, 61, 68, 116, 126, 137, 220,
for art’s sake 46, 54
and mimesis/imitation 128
of the dance 125, 127
of the novel x
of oratory/preaching 228, 232
of the writer 267
and ritual 134–5
As You Like It (Shakespeare) 251
atheism 22–3, 27, 31, 37, 188,
Auerbach, Eric 138, 139–140, 149
Mimesis 138
Auden, W. H.: Horae Canonicae: Nones viii
Augustine of Hippo 186, 261, 264, 265
Confessions 271
Avignon vii, ix, xvi
Aztecs ix, 34
Bacchae (Euripides) 32
bad faith 45, 52, 53, 54, 68, 70,
Balthazar, Hans Urs von 185
Balzac, Honoré de 68
Barabbas 223
Barber, C. L. 87–88
Baudelaire, Charles 137
Bernanos, Georges 172
Bible/biblical tradition xii, 7, 13–14, 149, 257, 261, 275
Hebrew Bible 13, 195, 198
and modernity 197–200
see also Gospels and Old Testament
Bosch, Jerome 220
Bosnian war 213
Bossuet, Jacques-Bénigne 228
Burning Man Festival ix
Byzantine world 257
Caiaphas 133, 275
Cain and Abel xv, 14
Camus, Albert xii, 41–7, 49, 50, 52–68, 70–3
Discours de Suède 57
La chute/The Fall 42–6, 52, 53–4, 56, 61, 67, 68, 70–73
L’étranger/The Stranger 41–2, 45, 47–72
L’homme révolté/The Rebel 57
Le malentendu/The Misunderstanding 45
Le mythe de Sisyphe/The Myth of Sisyphus 41, 45, 61, 63, 64, 68
La peste/The Plague 44, 45
Candide (Voltaire) 208, 245
Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da 220
Carré, Ambroise-Marie xii, 227–43
The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger) 42
Catholic Church/Catholicism 184, 185, 228–30, 235
see also Church and Second Vatican Council
Cervantes, Miguel de x, 68, 78, 262, 270
Don Quixote 261, 270, 279
charity 170, 274
Chateaubriand, François-René de 44
Chatterton (Vigny) 57–9, 63
Chenu, Marie-Dominique 232
Cheval, Ferdinand 180
Christianity 5, 7, 13, 36–7, 38, 145–6, 165, 167, 170, 172, 173, 177, 180, 187–8, 212, 221, 225, 259, 263–4, 266, 268, 279, 280
Christian apocalypse 40
Christian God 36, 37, 39, 168
Christian knowledge 40, 160
Christian revelation 159, 166, 168, 185
Christian story 254–7
Christian theology 170
and conversion 265–71
Girard’s 184–5
historical Christianity 185
and literature 259–72
and modernity 172
and mythology 7, 13–14, 20, 196, 224, 255, 256, 258
Nietzsche’s critique of 37–40, 188
and sacrifice 36, 38, 146–147, 166–7, 171, 172–3, 185, 198, 212
post-Christian era 259, 260, 261, 263
ultra-Christianity 287
see also Bible/biblical tradition and Gospels
Church 185, 235, 266, 282
French Church 230
Church of Laodicea see Laodicean Church
The City of God (Augustine) 264
Claudel, Paul 44
Clausewitz, Carl von xii
Cold War 170
The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare) 88
communism 171, 213
Comte, Auguste 189
concern for victims 199, 273, 287
Confessions (Augustine) 265
conflict vii–xiii, 3–4, 10, 90, 98, 104, 105, 109, 116, 117, 124, 128, 190, 206, 207, 215, 216, 251, 178, 279, 281, 284
international 157
mimetic 11–12, 78, 99, 100, 105, 121, 128, 132, 136, 138, 148, 153, 194, 207–10, 213, 214, 216, 251, 278, 279, 281
Shakespeare and 85–7, 88, 90, 98, 99, 100, 104–5, 109, 117
tragic conflict 57, 67, 98, 99
conversion xi, 248, 264–72
Augustine’s 265, 271
existential 55
Girard’s 182–4
novelistic 270
Proust’s 169
Corbin, Michel 185
Coriolanus (Shakespeare) 209
Corneille, Pierre 166
Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky) xii–xiii, 41, 60, 270
Cro-Magnon man 189
crowd vii, 7, 12, 15, 18, 22, 31, 33, 58, 99, 133, 161, 168, 175–77, 194, 197–8, 222–3, 224, 255, 257, 277
in Julius Caesar 103, 107, 108, 115, 117
in Peter’s denial 140, 142, 145
in the story of woman taken in adultery 174–75
Crucifixion xii, 13, 145, 197, 198, 219, 220, 221, 223, 274
Cuban missile crisis 253
dance 134–5
Salome’s xii, 119, 122–3, 124, 125–6, 127, 129, 130, 131, 132
and scandal 125–6, 132
Dante Alighieri 261–2
Divine Comedy 261
Darwinism 5, 190
de Rougement, Denis 80
death of God 24–27, 31, 32, 39
degree (ladder/system of) 89–90, 93, 96, 97, 100, 107, 119, 112, 114, 117
democracy 128, 215, 274
Derrida, Jacques 148
desire vii, x–xi, 4, 9–10, 16, 17, 26, 35, 76, 78, 80, 82, 94, 96, 110, 123, 124, 126, 128–9, 130–1, 133–5, 190–1, 249–50, 263, 273, 274, 277, 278, 279, 281
liberation from 268–9
metaphysical 76, 274
see also mimetic desire
Dickens, Charles 68
differentiation and undifferentiation 86, 87–88, 89, 91,100, 105, 116, 117, 118, 213, 286
Dionysus 37–9, 187–8
Donatist heresy 266
Don Quixote 261, 270, 279
Dostoevsky, Fyodor x, xv, 41, 57, 60. 68, 71, 72, 78, 262
Underground Man 57
doubles 90, 99, 104, 105, 109, 116, 124, 154
in The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare) 88
drama see tragedy
Dupuy, Jean-Pierre 194
Each Day I Begin/Chaque jour je commence (Carré) 231, 233, 234, 238, 239
economy/economics 205, 252, 285
Elihu 153–4, 155
Eliot, George 271
Eliphaz 161, 162
Empedocles 265
‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ (Hans Christian Andersen) 16
