Conversations with René Girard

Cynthia L. Haven was previously Milena Jesenská Journalism Fellow at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Austria, Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, USA and Voegelin Fellow at the Hoover Institution, USA.She is the author of Evolution of Desire: A Life of René Girard, the first-ever biography of the French theorist. She writes regularly for The Times Literary Supplement, and has contributed to The New York Times, The Nation, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. She has published several other books as well, including volumes on Czeslaw Milosz and Joseph Brodsky.

In Haven’s collection, Girard’s mimetic theory, with its ever-increasing range of applicability, comes forth forcefully. He had the rare gift of narrating ideas. Yet there is something else that the book reveals, which not only makes it a compelling read but deserves at least as much attention: the portrait of René Girard as a major public intellectual and one of the most seminal thinkers of our time; his uncompromising unorthodoxy and unusual position in American academia; the fascinating case of someone who, as a matter of both scholarly method and personal lifestyle, always seems to go against the flow, no matter the consequences.

• Introduction: Socrates in the Digital Age, Cynthia L. Haven“There Are Real Victims Behind the Text”, DiscussionMyth & Opera, Philippe GodefroidTechnological Power in the Post-Sacrificial World, Scott Walter The Logic of the Undecidable, Thomas BertonneauViolence, Difference, Sacrifice, Rebecca Adams“Revelation is dangerous. It's the spiritual equivalent of nuclear power.”, Michel Treguer“What Is Happening Today Is Mimetic Rivalry on a Global Scale.”, Henri Tincq “How Should Mimetic Theory Be Applied?”, Maria Stella BarberiShakespeare, Mimesis, and Desire, Robert Pogue HarrisonWhy Do We Fight? How Do We Stop?, Robert Pogue Harrison“War Is Everywhere”, Elisabeth Lévy“I am first and foremost a social scientist.”, Pedro Sette-Câmara, Alvaro Velloso de Carvalho, and Olavo de CarvalhoApocalyptic Thinking after 9/11, Robert DoranThe J’Accuse of René Girard: The Audacious Ideas of a Great Thinker, Giulio Meotti"I have always tried to think inside an evolutionary framework.", Pierpaolo Antonello and João Cezar de Castro RochaA Passion Born of Rivalry, Mark Anspach and Laurence Tacou"Christianity Will Be Victorious, But Only in Defeat”, Cynthia L. HavenPostscript: “René Girard Never Played the Great Man,” Says Biographer, Artur Sebastian RosmanIndex