Mimesis and Theory Essays on Literature and Criticism, 1953-2005 [Hardcover]

Mimesis and Theorybrings together twenty of Ren? Girard's uncollected essays on literature and literary theory, which, along with his classic,Deceit, Desire, and the Novel, have left an indelible mark on the field of literary and cultural studies. Spanning over fifty years of critical production, this anthology offers unique insights into the origin, development, and expansion of Girard's mimetic theory a groundbreaking account of human interaction and of the genesis of cultural forms.The essays run the gamut of Western literary culture, from Racine and Shakespeare to the existentialist writings of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. The authors who have most influenced GirardStendhal, Proust, and Dostoevskyreceive extended treatment, and Girard's observations on the changing landscape of literary studies are chronicled in several essays devoted to psychoanalysis, formalism, structuralism, and post-structuralism.Though at times overshadowed by his work in religious and cultural anthropology, Girard's work in the area of literary studies has been the wellspring of his thought. All of the essays in this volume develop the idea that the greatest authors are also the greatest students of human nature, for their artistic intuitions are generally more penetrating than the analyses of the philosophers or the social scientists. Girard does not offer us a theory of literature but literature as theory.Mimesis and Theorybrings together twenty previously uncollected essays on literature and literary theory by one of the most important thinkers of the past thirty years.Ren? Girard is the Andrew B. Hammond Professor Emeritus of French Civilization at Stanford University and a member of the Acad?mie fran?aise. Robert Doran is James P. Wilmot Assistant Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Rochester. [T]his collection spans the course of Girard's career and provides a concise way to gain some perspective on his legacy . . l,