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  Therapy: No Creature Stands Alone before God

Michael Patrick Murphy

in A Theology of Criticism: Balthasar, Postmodernism, and the Catholic Imagination

Chapter 5 presents a reading of David Lodge's novel Therapy (1995) in light of Balthasar's Theo‐logic. Lodge does well to illustrate that the erasure of God that preoccupies postmodern consciousness ... More

Chapter 5 presents a reading of David Lodge's novel Therapy (1995) in light of Balthasar's Theo‐logic. Lodge does well to illustrate that the erasure of God that preoccupies postmodern consciousness significantly affects contemporary conceptions about “subject formation” and “people in relation.” Lodge develops these themes by constructing a narrative that mirrors both the theological trajectory of Balthasar's tripartite program and the existential progression identified by the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard—namely, the aesthetic, ethical, and religious “stages” of human experience. Importantly, a close consideration of Kierkegaard's stages reveals a direct analogy with the transcendentals, which, in turn, illuminates one of the many reasons why Balthasar admired Kierkegaard and why Lodge's novel is a fertile literary example of Balthasar's Theologic. By a close consideration of the triadic structure of being presented by a variety of sources, the chapter begins to discern how God's logic—how human logic—exists in a trinitarian dynamic.Less

Kierkegaard and Girard

Charles K. Bellinger

in The Genealogy of Violence: Reflections on Creation, Freedom, and Evil

Rene Girard's concept that human psychology begins with a sense of lack or personal deficiency is compared with Kierkegaard's notion of the incompleteness of the self. Mimetic desire, as it is ... More

Rene Girard's concept that human psychology begins with a sense of lack or personal deficiency is compared with Kierkegaard's notion of the incompleteness of the self. Mimetic desire, as it is described by Girard, is a phenomenon that Kierkegaard was keenly aware of. Both authors show that mimetic desire leads to a situation captured by the phrase ”the crowd is untruth.” Immature persons, in a state of spiritual cowardice, take offense at God and are scandalized by the possibility of self‐knowledge; they hide in the crowd. The synthesis of Kierkegaard and Girard produces a very powerful Christian interpretation of the psychology of violence.Less

From Slaughtered Lambs to Dedicated Lives: Sacrifice as Value-Bestowal

Jessica Frazier

in Sacrifice and Modern Thought

The chapter offers a critical assessment of René Girard's theory of sacrifice. It is not always recognized that Girard's influential theory of sacrifice is based on a specific anthropology. Its ... More

The chapter offers a critical assessment of René Girard's theory of sacrifice. It is not always recognized that Girard's influential theory of sacrifice is based on a specific anthropology. Its foundation is the notion of mimetic desire; according to this principle, human desire is automatically attracted to and structured by the wishes and desires of others in a way which causes human relationships to be marked by mimetic rivalry. The text argues that this is a skewed perception of human agency which ignores the existence and significance of other motivational factors originating in the preferences of the subject. According to the perspective of Girard's mimetic theory, human beings are reduced to puppets of the blind force of mimetic desire; free will, affirmation of the good, and responsible action cannot be accounted for in this reductionist conception of human nature.Less

The Modalities of Desire in Mimetic Rivalry: Sin, Sign, and Symbol

Edward Weisband

in The Macabresque: Human Violation and Hate in Genocide, Mass Atrocity and Enemy-Making

This chapter analyses the modes of perpetrator performative transgression by distinguishing between torture, torment, and agony as outcomes desired by perpetrators that represent different kinds of ... More

This chapter analyses the modes of perpetrator performative transgression by distinguishing between torture, torment, and agony as outcomes desired by perpetrators that represent different kinds of suffering reflective of the comparative influences of culture. The analysis focuses on the language of perpetrators in terms of lies, empty euphemisms, and the anti-ironic to develop a theory of language that is framed by the willed desire of perpetrators to use cruelty to produce a form of post-factuality the analysis describes as “informativeness.” This chapter advances a theory of social antagonism based on an analysis of the dynamics of envy, jealousy, honor, shame, purity that in turn are anchored by theoretical explanations emphasizing the psychodynamics of lack and loss, encapsulated by the concept of rival self-other.Less

Market Objectivity

André Orléan

in The Empire of Value: A New Foundation for Economics

Neoclassical theory proceeds from an analysis of individual preferences, a set of objective facts about which economics has nothing to say. From this arises the doctrine of the utilitarian ... More

Neoclassical theory proceeds from an analysis of individual preferences, a set of objective facts about which economics has nothing to say. From this arises the doctrine of the utilitarian relationship to things and the problem of general equilibrium. Walrasian adjustment and mediation by price is discussed. Girard's notion of mimetic desire is extended to the analysis of economic behavior, and the relevance of asymmetric information, quality, and conventions explored. The future as a source of uncertainty and risk is examined in relation to the role of money in neoclassical theory, and four postulates constituting what is called market objectivity are stated. The underlying logic of neoclassical theory is elucidated in terms of the ideal-type analysis devised by Weber and applied to economics by Walras.Less

In Waiting

Markus Krajewski

in The Server: A Media History from the Present to the Baroque

This chapter explains the figure of the servant in literature. The focus here is on the eighteenth century, via a close reading of Miss Sara Sampson. Paying close attention to Goethe's long list of ... More

This chapter explains the figure of the servant in literature. The focus here is on the eighteenth century, via a close reading of Miss Sara Sampson. Paying close attention to Goethe's long list of servants (and especially to his valet Carl Stadelmann), the chapter examines the articulation of power relations between master and subject and, further, the topos of the world upside down, which threatens to turn those power structures on their head. The chapter concludes with a discussion of mimetic desire. Using examples from Goethe and Proust, it shows not merely how servants mimic the behavior of their masters but also how the actions subalterns imitate come to affect, in turn, the models set by their superiors.Less

Miyazaki Hayao’s Spirited Away, or, the Adventure of the Obliques

Michael Lucken

in Imitation and Creativity in Japanese Arts: From Kishida Ryusei to Miyazaki Hayao

Spirited away by Miyazaki Hayao

Sacrifice and the Inner Organs of the Cold-War Citizen

Adam Piette

in Sacrifice and Modern War Literature: The Battle of Waterloo to the War on Terror

The cold war as a historical continuum within the citizen imagination existed as a set of internalized mechanisms for the imperilling and domination of the subject. This transpires in some of the ... More

The cold war as a historical continuum within the citizen imagination existed as a set of internalized mechanisms for the imperilling and domination of the subject. This transpires in some of the more extreme fictions that attempted to stage this anxiety as a fear for internal organs, as a sacrificial logic threatening innocent citizen ‘insides’. This chapter discusses examples of those stagings: Samuel Beckett’s Trilogy; Elizabeth Bowen’s The Little Girls (1964); J. G. Ballard’s The Atrocity Exhibition (1969); and Douglas Oliver’s The Harmless Building (1973) and its staging of inner-organ anxiety and warfare. The chapter will be underpinned by René Girard’s theories on scapegoating and mimetic desire, along with Walter Benjamin’s ‘Critique of Violence’ and his essay on Goethe’s Elective Affinities exploring sacrificial history. The reading of those theoretical works will be used to revise Agamben’s characterization of homo sacer to enable a targeted interpretation of cold-war sacrificial codes.Less

Fatal Attraction

Nelly Furman

in Georges Bizet's Carmen

Simply summarized the plot of Georges Bizet’s Carmen is that of a crime of passion. This banal plot does not by itself account for the extraordinary international success of the story in different ... More

Simply summarized the plot of Georges Bizet’s Carmen is that of a crime of passion. This banal plot does not by itself account for the extraordinary international success of the story in different media. The themes that explain the tragic end are imbedded in the libretto. Through a textual and structural analysis of the libretto, the themes of love, passion, gender, freedom, possessiveness, and responsibility, as well as the importance of language in human relations are given new emphasis. The chapter concludes with a discussion of personal trauma and political issues that may account for Georges Bizet’s interest in bringing this story to the operatic stage in 1870.Less

Screen Woman

Nelly Furman

in Georges Bizet's Carmen

The international appeal of the story of Carmen on the silver screen has been phenomenal. The story has spawned nearly eighty films by some of the world’s most celebrated directors. In the early days ... More

The international appeal of the story of Carmen on the silver screen has been phenomenal. The story has spawned nearly eighty films by some of the world’s most celebrated directors. In the early days of cinema, we find a first cluster of Carmens among them films directed by Cecil B. Demille, Charlie Chaplin, and Ernest Lubitsch. In 1954, Otto Preminger’s Carmen Jones calls attention to African American issues in the United States, as will in 2001, Carmen: A Hip Opera directed by Robert Towsend for MTV. In 1983, we find a second cluster of international film directed by Jean-Luc Godard (France), Francesco Rosi (Italy) and Carlos Saura (Spain). At the turn of the twenty-first century, Bizet’s heroine appears in two major African film production: Joseph Gaï Ramaka’s Karmen (Senegal) and U-Carmen by the Dimpho Di Kopan theater (South Africa). All these films testify to the continuous attraction of Bizet’s heroine through time from the lyric stage to the silver screen.Less