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A contribution to: Space/Time

Edited by Jessica Gildersleeve and John McKeane

MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities 4

Modern Humanities Research Association

open

Abstract.  This article explores the hypothesis that using René Girard’s literary and anthropological theories of mimesis, violence, and Christianity to analyse some of the works of the French Catholic literary revival could challenge interpretations which have hitherto characterized such writings as ‘reactionary’. A preliminary exploration of Girard’s theory traces its three main branches. Girardian mimesis redefines desire as essentially imitative in nature; the scapegoat mechanism describes a cathartic process which provides the resolution of mimetic conflict through the religious victimization of some individual or group; the Gospel alternative to the scapegoat stems from Girard’s rereading of the Bible in which he finds non-violent solutions for mimetic conflict. These theoretical tools are then applied to Paul Bourget’s novel Le Sens de la mort (1915) and Georges Bernanos’s political pamphlet Les Grands Cimetières sous la lune (1938). Bourget’s novel presents a clear case of mimetic conflict. Jealous of an apparent rival, an older man tests his young wife’s love in a suicide pact. His apparent rival undermines this hostility by sacrificing his genuine but controlled affection for the older man’s wife. Bernanos’s pamphlet depicts the ills of French and Spanish conservatives, lamenting their mimetic cupidity and attacking the nationalists’ involvement in the Spanish Civil War as an outbreak of mimetic violence. He proposes the espousal of Franciscan poverty as a cure for mimetic cupidity and the rediscovery of evangelical childhood as a cure for mimetic violence. The discoveries made by undertaking a Girardian reading of these works suggest the potential for a more comprehensive Girardian rereading of the French Catholic literary revival to challenge our understanding of their reactionary character. They also point to new sources and perspectives from which to explore Girardian paradigms.

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