Discourses of Violence (Girard)

[Rimgaila Salys]

Bob, I was referring to Rene Girard's Violence and the Sacred, which argues
that violence is an essential manifestation of the sacred, a way traditional
societies achieve transcendence, and that this violence is often expressed
through sacrifice. The sacrifice of victims/scapegoats purifies the 
community
and, just as importantly, unifies it.  Think of Pavlichenko's apprehension 
of
life, "really getting to know it," through trampling his master, or Lyutov's
sacrifice of the goose, the cossacks sitting like heathen idols, their
invitation to Lyutov at the end and so on. But please look at the Girard 
book
rather than going by my superficial summary.

Mark Lipovetsky, who is the expert here, is interested in the application of
these and related ideas to Stalinist discourses (which themselves used and
encouraged mythic referents) as a way of deconstructing--not justifying--
Terror.

                                                    Best, Rima S.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Chandler" <kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM>
To: <SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2005 12:28 AM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Discourses of Violence (Girard)


> Rima,
>
> Do you have time to tell us a little about "Girardian theories of 
> ritualized
> violence in society"?  It would be interesting.
>
> R.
>
>> Rimgaila Salys <Salys at buffmail.Colorado.EDU>:
>>
>>> It seems to me that Babel's depiction of the cossacks in Red Cavalry is
>>> perfectly consistent with Girardian theories of ritualized violence in
>>> society.  I've noticed that many people who have lived through/escaped
>>> Stalinism or even its gentler successors are very resistant to myth 
>>> criticism
>>> as a way of approaching the Soviet era, and here one has to agree to
>>> disagree.
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
> ******************************************************************************>
> *
>> Mark Lipovetsky [Leiderman]
>> Associate Professor of Russian Studies and Comparative Literature,
>> Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures,
>> CU-Boulder, UCB 276, Boulder CO 80309
>> Fax: (303)492-5376
>> Tel: 303-492-7957
>>
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>
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