Scapegoating in American Beauty – by Eric Buys
In the article Scapegoating in American Beauty Eric Buys reflects on the role mimetic desire plays in the life of Frank Fitts. Fitts, a closeted colonel in the United States Marine Corps desires acceptance and recognition which he feels is not possible if he is openly gay. Yearning to express who he truly is, he […]
Mimetic Theory in High School- by Eric Buys
Eric Buys has written an excellent piece imagining mimetic theory being taught as a high school course. Human beings are essentially crisis managers. According to Buys, in the face of any major crisis, humans ask three types of questions: Scientific Questions How do crisis situations in human life arise out of mimetic interactions? How are […]
Mimetic Theory and Islam: “The Wound Where Light Enters” – by Michael Kirwan & Ahmad Achtar
This volume explores mimetic theory and its shared ground between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—the Abrahamic religions—which seems to have a spiritual and ethical breakthrough: a move away from scapegoating rituals and toward a concern for innocent victims. This is a move away from negative cycles of desire that lead to violence and toward positive cycles […]
Desire: Flaubert, Proust, Fitzgerald, Miller, Lana Del Rey – by Per Bjørnar Grande
“A common theme in films, novels, or plays is how desire works in characters and how it creates and changes their destinies.” So begins this work by Norweigen professor and Girard scholar Per Bjørnar Grande in this Breakthroughs in Mimetic Theory series by Michigan State University Press, a series supported by Imitatio, a project of […]
Mimetic Martinis: Contagious Desire Explained, by James Bond
The drama of everyday life is that people are constantly seeking other people to imitate while simultaneously unaware that they imitate. I plan to order a beer from the bar, but my friend orders a gin martini first. Suddenly, I “realize” that I want a martini, too. (If I’m honest with myself, I didn’t want […]