Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World

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Description

Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World presents a highly original global theory of culture. Here, in his greatest work, Rene Girard explores the social function of violence and the mechanism of the social scapegoat. Girard's vision is a brilliant and devastating challenge to conventional views of literature, anthropology, religion 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 such long shadows today. By contrast, contemporary criticism seems paltry and faint-hearted." Comparative Literature "...a highly readable talent for analysing and deconstructing myth...original and provocative." Frederic Raphael, Sunday Times "One of the most striking theories of human culture ever presented" Christianity and Literature

Author Bio

Ren Girard was the Andrew B. Hammond Professor Emeritus of French Language, Literature, and Civilization at Stanford University, USA.