Some Confusion about Terms again.... -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 07:07:41 01/28/08 Mon
Author: Kiernan
Subject: Some Confusion about Terms again....

In the first three chapters of "The Scapegoat," Girard speaks of how society, when it is not in a state of crisis, gives an "impression of difference" as a result of "real diersity and also of a system of exchange that 'differentiates' and thus conceals the reciprocal elements it contains by its very culture and by the nature of the exchange" (13). He says later that "this lack of differentiation corresponds to the reality of human relations, yet it remains mythic" (14). These statements indicate that culture, in a stable state, provides a veneer of differentiation from other cultures, while in truth it is just the same as all other world cultures. Further down the page, however, he says, "Culture is somehow eclipsed as it becomes less differentiated" (14). So, are cultures ever different and separate from each other? If not (if, at heart, all cultures are truly the same) does this mean that cultures as such do not truly exist?

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