Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (Bloomsbury Revelations) - Softcover

René Girard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1474268439 ISBN 13: 9781474268431

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016

Synopsis

Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World presents a highly original global theory of culture. Here, in his greatest work, René Girard explores the function of violence, mimetic desire and the mechanism of the scapegoat, in the history of society and religion. Girards vision is a brilliant and devastating challenge to conventional views of literature, anthropology, philosophy and psychoanalysis.

About this title

Review:

Rene Girard's work is both a rationally articulated study and a prophetic vision of the hidden origins of culture and the nature of cultural processes. In its enormous, breathtaking scope it suggests the projects of those nineteenth century intellectual giants (Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud) who still cast long shadows today. By contrast, contemporary criticism seems paltry and faint-hearted. --Comparative Literature

[A] highly readable talent for analyzing and deconstructing myth... original and provocative. --Sunday Times

One of the most striking theories of human culture ever presented. --Christianity and Literature

From the Back Cover:

"A necessary companion piece to Violence and the Sacred for those interested in Girard's grand theory of society and human nature. . . . Girard expounds his vision of the foundational place of mimesis, violence, and scapegoating for all human cultures. . . . More forcefully stated here than elsewhere is Girard's conviction that his thesis is merely an uncovering of the message heretofore buried in the Christian scriptures."--Virginia Quarterly Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1474268439
• ISBN 13: 9781474268431
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464