Research On René Girard’s Literary Theory

René Girard literary theory consists of three parts: the theory of mimetic desire,scapegoat mechanism and myth view.The theory of mimetic desire,as the cornerstone of his theory,has a wide influence on Girard’s personal research career and the western ideological circle.Girard’s theory of mimetic desire is based on inheriting Plato’s concept of traditional imitation in criticism and reflecting on Freud’s theory of desire.And the Girard’s theory is derived from the argumentation of literary works.Its basic connotation is: the desire is not spontaneously produced by the subject,but by the mimetic of the medium.The theory of mimetic desire studies the relationship and influence among the subject,medium and object,and focuses on the medium.Scapegoat mechanism is constructed on the basis of the theory of mimetic desire.Competition,hostility and conflict caused by the desire of mimetic eventually lead to social crisis.In order to solve the crisis,groups must choose scapegoats.Scapegoating is not arbitrary,and Girard has identified four paradigms for scapegoating by studying texts of persecution.As an innocent victim,the scapegoat reconciled the contradictions of the group with personal sacrifice.After the crisis calmed down,the victim was sanctified as the bearer and restorer of the chaotic order.The sanctification of primitive society is a field of violence.Human culture is constructed on this basis,and tries to avoid and cover up its own violence and persecution.Myth is the childhood literature of human beings,and the desire to eliminate the representation of violence dominates the evolution of myth.Following a history of purging collective persecutions--downplaying individual persecutions--and erasing traces of persecutions,our perception of the myth changes with its historical narrative.The processing of aesthetics and poetics became the adjustment method of persecution,the victims in the original sacrificial ceremony became the saviour of the national crisis,and the strengthening of a moral dualism made the myth finally evolved into idyllic poetry and utopia.Girard condemns the fact that myth erases violence and opposes structuralism’s use of dualistic thinking in myth criticism,which is precisely this kind of causal thinking covering.