Mimetic Desire and Mechanisms of Sacrifice: A Critical Analysis of René Girard’s Theory of Violence

Yıl 2025, Cilt: 19 Sayı: 2, 490 - 502, 29.12.2025

Erhan Korkmaz

https://doi.org/10.47777/cankujhss.1676262

Öz

René Girard’s theory of mimetic desire, sacrificial mechanism, and violence has significantly shaped interdisciplinary analyses of social conflict. According to Girard, desire is not autonomous but imitative, generating rivalry and ultimately a mimetic crisis. This crisis, he argues, is resolved through sacrificial mechanisms that direct collective violence toward a scapegoat, restoring social stability. His seminal works, Violence and the Sacred (1977) and The Scapegoat (1986), and his most comprehensive synthesis, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (1987), offer both historical analysis of sacrificial rituals and theoretical tools for interpreting modern social phenomena. Employing a methodology of comparative theoretical analysis and critical textual inquiry, this article critically engages with Girard’s framework. It highlights the theory’s limitations in addressing anthropological and historical diversity, its theological underpinnings, and its antagonism toward psychoanalytic and Marxist approaches. Drawing on critical animal studies, the paper interrogates Girard’s human-animal dichotomy and examines the implications of his theory for critiquing speciesism. Additionally, the article explores the theoretical tension between Girard’s Hobbesian view of violence as innate and Kropotkin’s anarchist vision of mutual aid. By integrating these critiques, the paper evaluates Girard’s relevance to contemporary issues such as digital shaming, identity politics, xenophobia, and ecological collapse. While Girard’s model remains a powerful tool for analyzing modern violence, it requires a critical reassessment that incorporates speciesism, social plurality, and anarchist perspectives.

Anahtar Kelimeler

René Girard , mimetic desire , sacrificial mechanism , critical animal studies , anarchism

Mimetik Arzu ve Kurban Mekanizmaları: René Girard’ın Şiddet Teorisi Üzerine Eleştirel Bir İnceleme

Öz

René Girard’ın mimetik arzu, kurban etme ve şiddet kuramı, toplumsal çatışmaların çözümüne dair önemli teorik araçlar sunmuştur. Girard’a göre arzu bireysel değil, taklit yoluyla edinilir; bu durum rekabeti ve sonunda mimetik krizi doğurur. Toplumlar, bu krizi bir kurban mekanizması aracılığıyla çözerek şiddeti günah keçisine yönlendirir ve istikrarı yeniden sağlar. Violence and the Sacred (1977) ile The Scapegoat (1986) eserleri, hem tarihsel ritüelleri açıklamakta hem de modern toplumsal olgulara yönelik bir çerçeve sunmaktadır. Bu makale, Girard’ın kuramını destekleyici yönleriyle birlikte eleştirel biçimde ele almaktadır. Özellikle antropolojik ve tarihsel çeşitliliği göz ardı etmesi, teolojik altyapısı ve psikanaliz ile Marksizm karşıtlığı eleştiriye konu edilmektedir. Eleştirel hayvan çalışmaları perspektifinden, insan-hayvan ayrımı ve türcülük bağlamındaki sınırları sorgulanmaktadır. Ayrıca, Girard’ın şiddeti doğallaştıran Thomas Hobbesçu yaklaşımı ile Pyotr Kropotkin’in anarşist karşılıklı yardımlaşma anlayışı arasındaki kuramsal gerilim incelenmektedir. Son olarak, dijital linç kültürü, kimlik politikaları, göçmen karşıtlığı ve ekolojik krizler gibi çağdaş sorunlara Girard’ın teorisinin nasıl uygulanabileceği tartışılmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

René Girard , mimetik arzu , kurban mekanizması , eleştirel hayvan çalışmaları , anarşizm

Kaynakça

• Alison, J. (1996). Raising Abel: The recovery of the eschatological imagination. Crossroad Publishing.
• Bloch, M. (1992). Prey into hunter: The politics of religious experience. Cambridge University Press.
• Borch-Jacobsen, M. (1988). The Freudian subject (C. Porter, Trans.). Stanford University Press.
• Cohn, N. (2001). Europe’s inner demons: The demonization of Christians in medieval Christendom. University of Chicago Press.
• Cudworth, E. (2011). Social lives with other animals: Tales of sex, death and love. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Dillard, J. (2008). A slaughterhouse nightmare: Psychological harm suffered by slaughterhouse employees and the possibility of redress through legal reform. Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law & Policy, 15(2), 391–408. https://ssrn.com/abstract=1016401
• Dolgoff, S. (1974). Anarchist collectives: Workers’ self-management in the Spanish revolution, 1936–1939. Black Rose Books.
• Dumouchel, P. (2015). The barren sacrifice: An essay on political violence (M. Baker, Trans.). Michigan State University Press.
• Dunayer, J. (2001). Animal equality: Language and liberation. Ryce Publishing.
• Fleming, C. (2004). René Girard: Violence, mimesis, and culture. Polity Press.
• Girard, R. (1965). Deceit, desire, and the novel: Self and other in literary structure (Y. Freccero, Trans.). The Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Girard, R. (1977). Violence and the sacred (P. Gregory, Trans.). Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Girard, R. (1986). The scapegoat (Y. Freccero, Trans.). Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Girard, R., Oughourlian, J.-M., & Lefort, G. (1987). Things hidden since the foundation of the world (S. Bann & M. Metteer, Trans.). Stanford University Press.
• Girard, R. (2010). Battling to the end: Conversations with Benoît Chantre (M. Baker, Trans.). Michigan State University Press.
• Golsan, R. J. (2001). René Girard and myth: An introduction. Routledge.
• Graeber, D. (2004). Fragments of an anarchist anthropology. Prickly Paradigm Press.
• Graeber, D., & Wengrow, D. (2021). The dawn of everything: A new history of humanity. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• Haven, C. (2018). Evolution of desire: A life of René Girard. Michigan State University Press.
• Hobbes, T. (1996). Leviathan (R. Tuck, Ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• Hubert, H., & Mauss, M. (1981). Sacrifice: Its nature and function (W. Halls, Trans.). University of Chicago Press.
• Kapferer, B. (2004). Ritual dynamics and virtual practices in changing social contexts. Social Analysis, 48(2), 35–54.
• Kirwan, M. (2009). Girard and theology. T&T Clark.
• Kozal, G. (2013). René Girard’ın tragedya kuramını ve şiddet kavramını Arthur Miller’ın “Cadı Kazanı” metninden okumak. Tiyatro Eleştirmenliği ve Dramaturji Bölümü Dergisi, 22, 55–80.
• Kropotkin, P. (2009). Mutual aid: A factor of evolution. Dover.
• Mauss, M. (2002). The gift: The form and reason for exchange in archaic societies (W. D. Halls, Trans.). Routledge.
• Sahlins, M. (1985). Islands of history. University of Chicago Press.
• Lévi-Strauss, C. (1962). Totemism (R. Needham, Trans.). Merlin Press.
• Livingston, P. (1992). Models of desire: René Girard and the psychology of mimesis. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Moore, R. I. (2007). The formation of a persecuting society: Authority and deviance in Western Europe 950–1250. Blackwell.
• Nibert, D. (2013). Animal oppression and human violence: Domesecration, capitalism, and global conflict. Columbia University Press.
• Pachirat, T. (2011). Every twelve seconds: Industrialized slaughter and the politics of sight. Yale University Press.
• Palaver, W. (2013). René Girard’s mimetic theory. Michigan State University Press.
• Riordan, D. V. (2021). The scapegoat mechanism in human evolution: An analysis of René Girard’s hypothesis on the process of hominization. Biological Theory, 16, 242–256. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-021-00381-y
• Taylor, N., & Signal, T. D. (2011). Theorizing animals: Re-thinking human-animal relations. Brill.
• Twine, R. (2010). Animals as biotechnology: Ethics, sustainability and critical animal studies. Routledge.