Abstract
In his study of some literary canons, René Girard, a French literary critic and anthropologist, analyzes human desire and sums up the theory of mimetic desire, which means that a person's desire, as the desire of the subject, always imitates the similar desire that belongs to the mediator of the desire. Girard distinguishes the modes of mimetic desire into two types, the external mediation and the internal mediation, and draws a conclusion that the internal mediation would inevitably lead to violence due to the competition between the subject and the mediator. Referring to Roland Barthes's mythologies, this article indicates that the modern myth generated by the external mediation can similarly cause violence. Girard's theory concerns the classic issue of the other, so that the last part of this article reveals the hidden dialogic relationship between Girard and Bakhtin. On the one hand, Bakhtin's effort on the relationship of "the self and the other" points out the importance of dialogue and empathy, which can deal with the violence produced by the internal mediation. On the other hand, the violence of the external mediation can be eliminated in a way by using Isaiah Berlin's pluralism under the Bakhtinian view.
First Page
143
Last Page
150
Recommended Citation
Li, Xue, and Xiao Bi. 2017. "Mimetic Violence and the Issue of the Other: A New Interpretation of René Girard." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 37, (4): pp.143-150. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol37/iss4/6
