Mimetic Appetite
Mimetic appetite is a way to describe the power of mimesis as a kind of passion, to take a category from classical metaphysics. According to Thomas Aquinas, humans and the rest of creation have appetites that drive them toward their telos, or ultimate ends. Humans, though, are more complicated than any other kind of being […]
Mimetic Theory
An explanation of social and cultural phenomena based on the role of imitation in human behavior—particularly, the imitation of desire (mimetic desire) and its consequences. The foundations of mimetic theory were laid by the French polymath René Girard in 1961 in his book Deceit, Desire, and the Novel, which described mimetic desire (what he usually […]
Desire
A complex phenomenon of human life involving emotions and actions which are part of the process of wanting something or someone
The Humble Story of Don Quixote: Reflections on the Birth of the Modern Novel—by Cesáreo Bandera
The Humble Story of Don Quixote, written by a master of mimetic theory (Bandera), applies mimetic theory to better understand what is arguably the greatest novel ever written—or at least the first modern novel ever written. Don Quixote occupied such a high place in the great Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky’s opinion that he said this […]
Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature —by Erich Auerback
[Note: We chose to display the cover from the French edition from the 60’s rather than the modern cover.] Erich Auerback did one of the most extensive studies of mimesis in literature before Girard. Auerback, professor or Romance Languages at Yale University, makes a sweeping account of European literature from the Odyssey to Ulysses and […]
The Fyre Festival and Violent Mimesis
On April 27, 2017, the first attendees of the now-infamous Fyre Festival landed in the Bahamas. They expected a weekend of luxury and pampering, and to potentially rub shoulders with Instagram influencers such as Kendall Jenner and Hailey Baldwin. Instead, they were met with chaos. There were no luxury hotels or gourmet meals, just Lord […]
Acquisitive Mimesis
Acquisitive mimesis describes the transfer of desires from one person to another. In triangular, or mimetic desire, a mediator exists between the person desiring and the object being desired. These mediator models how to desire and thus passes on the desire. Depending on how far removed the mediator is from the subject, the desire can […]
Mimesis Versus Imitation
Mimesis is a funny word. It would make Strunk & White (who taught us never to use unnecessary or overly complicated words) cringe. So why use it? It turns out there’s a good reason Quite simply, mimesis is not the same as imitation. It refers to something far more common, far more powerful, and far […]
Mimetic Rivalry
Second-stage mimesis in which mimetic desire has progressed to unhealthy rivalry—someone takes a model from within their own world or social sphere (I call this world “Freshmanistan”) and covertly competes with them for the same objects of desire, often through negative imitation.
Shakespearean Cultures: Latin America and the Challenges of Mimesis in Non-Hegemonic Circumstances
by João Cezar de Castro Rocha In Shakespearean Cultures, René Girard’s ideas on violence and the sacred inform an innovative analysis of contemporary Latin America. Castro Rocha proposes a new theoretical framework based upon the “poetics of emulation” and offers a groundbreaking approach to understanding the asymmetries of the modern world. Shakespearean cultures are those whose […]