Where is the text? -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 08:05:22 02/08/08 Fri
Author: Kiernan
Subject: Where is the text?

Perhaps I'm expecting something from Girard's criticism that I shouldn't be, but I found myself frustrated by the lack of actual textual explication in any of the works that we have read thus far when he provides his "reading" of a text. Instead of opening up how specific lines in a text demonstrate that the author is working within a mimetic/scapegoat paradigm, he often seems to do a reading based on a relatively simple plot summary, to which he adds a few significant quotes, which are usually offered only to prove a point, not as text to be opened by his reading. This type of writing seems to subordinate the details of the text to a position where they become almost insignificant; provided that the general plot of the story fits the theory, discovering how the details work that out becomes a little game of fitting in the middle pieces in a puzzle. Am I misunderstanding what Girard is doing here?

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Replies:

Re: Where is the text? -- Jfish, 19:27:18 02/10/08 Sun