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René Girard´s landmark study of religion and culture, now available in the Bloomsbury Revelations series.

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Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World presents a highly original global theory of culture. Here, in his greatest work, René Girard explores the function of violence, mimetic desire and the mechanism of the scapegoat, in the history of society and religion. Girard´s vision is a brilliant and devastating challenge to conventional views of literature, anthropology, philosophy and psychoanalysis.

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Rene Girard´s work is both a rationally articulated study and a prophetic vision of the hidden origins of culture and the nature of cultural processes. In its enormous, breathtaking scope it suggests the projects of those nineteenth century intellectual giants (Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud) who still cast long shadows today. By contrast, contemporary criticism seems paltry and faint-hearted. Comparative Literature

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Girard, René
René Girard was the Andrew B. Hammond Professor Emeritus of French Language, Literature, and Civilization at Stanford University, USA.

Bann, Stephen
Stephen Bann is Professor of History of Art at the University of Bristol, UK.

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