Girard, René (b. 1923). French philosopher. Born in Avignon, Girard has spent most of his adult life teaching French in American universities. His approach is characterized by a close reading of literary, religious, and mythological texts. His Mensonge romantique, vérité romanesque (1961) is an important study of the novel. In his major work, La Violence et le sacré (1972), he argues that the mimetic nature of desire is at the origin of all human conflicts, which can only be resolved by sacrificial rituals of expulsion. In Des choses cachées depuis la fondation du monde (1978) he proposes the solution in a non-sacrificial reading of the New Testament.

[Michael Kelly]

The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.