Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World

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Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World presents a highly original global theory of culture. Here, in his greatest work, Ren 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.

Reviews

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 *

Author Bio

Ren Girard (1923-) was Andrew B. Hammond Professor Emeritus of French Language, Literature, and Civilization at Stanford University, USA, from 1981 to his retirement in 1995. A historian, literary critic and philosopher, he is the author of over 30 books including Violence and the Sacred.