Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World

De: René Girard

Narrado por: Mike Fraser

Duración: 21 h y 25 m

Resumen del Editor

An astonishing work of cultural criticism, this book is widely recognized as a brilliant and devastating challenge to conventional views of literature, anthropology, religion, and psychoanalysis. In its scope and interest it can be compared with Freud's Totem and Taboo, the subtext Girard refutes with polemic daring, vast erudition, and a persuasiveness that leaves the listener compelled to respond, one way or another.

This is the single fullest summation of Girard's ideas to date, the book by which they will stand or fall. In a dialogue with two psychiatrists (Jean-Michel Oughourlian and Guy Lefort), Girard probes an encyclopedic array of topics, ranging across the entire spectrum of anthropology, psychoanalysis, and cultural production.

Girard's point of departure is what he calls "mimesis," the conflict that arises when human rivals compete to differentiate themselves from each other, yet succeed only in becoming more and more alike. At certain points in the life of a society, according to Girard, this mimetic conflict erupts into a crisis in which all difference dissolves in indiscriminate violence. In primitive societies, such crises were resolved by the "scapegoating mechanism," in which the community, en masse, turned on an unpremeditated victim. The repression of this collective murder and its repetition in ritual sacrifice then formed the foundations of both religion and the restored social order.

The book is not merely, or perhaps not mainly, biblical exegesis, for within its scope fall some of the most vexing problems of social historythe paradox that violence has social efficacy, the function of the scapegoat, the mechanism of anti-semitism.

©1978, 1987 Éditions Grasset & Fasquelle; translation copyright by The Athlone Press (P)2023 Echo Point Books & Media, LLC

Dense and meaningful

Loved the book and enjoyed the composition of it being a back and forth between Rene, Guy, and Jean-Michel. Wish more books would do this to dissect subjects. The second book was a bit of slog for me, but it picked up again for the third book on interpersonal psychology. 100% recommend.

A master work

This obscenely relevant book one can only hope
will spurn cataclysmic illumination my friend.
Thank you for this gift for it is great indeed.

Excellent Book

The dialogue pattern is a very good way for the listener but difficult to follow at first…but worth your time. Definitely worth your time

headline

a great portrayal of how our desire isn't our own. doesn't take singularity seriously into account.

Shattering the myths history lives by.

I’m 63, and I have read most modern-ancient thinkers, and there is nothing quite like the breathtaking insights and solutions I found in Girard’s mimetic theory.

Do yourself a favor.

Listen.

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Narration difficult to listen to

I can’t stay with the raspy voice and the doomsday tone in the reader’s voice. Perhaps a studio problem, poor production values or something. I won’t be finishing it by listening. I’m going to check it out of library instead