To Double Business Bound: Essays on Literature, Mimesis, and Anthropology

An individual desires an object, not for itself, but because another individual also desires it. This mimetic desire, René Girard contends, lies at the source of all human disorder and order. In brilliant readings of Danta, Camus, Nietzsche, Dostoevski, Lévi-Strauss, Freud, and others, Girard draws out the thesis of mimetic desire--and ponders its suppression in the West since Plato: The historical mutilation of mimesis. . . was no mere oversight, no fortuitous 'error.' Real awareness of mimetic desire threatens the flattering delusion we entertain not only about ourselves as individuals but also about the nature and origin of that collective self we call our society.

Author: René Girard
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 03/01/1988
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.77lbs
Size: 9.00h x 5.99w x 0.64d
ISBN: 9780801836558

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