De la victime émissaire à la pensée symbolique

What place does René Girard occupy in the human sciences? Our answer shall start with his criticism of Freudian psychoanalysis, which leads him to consider violence as the « transcendental signifier » of desires and of every cultural expression. The consequences of this criticism are particularly obvious in René Girard's confrontation with Claude Lévi-Strauss. As Levi Strauss witnesses the characteristic structure of the « savage » or « symbolical » thought specific to each mythical or legendary group, he refuses the supremacy allowed to a specific code (such as sexuality or violence): the symbol is not related to an unchanging and « transcendant » signifier veiled by the text. We shall study this confrontation through an emblematic example drawn from medieval literature. The studied pattern « thinks » mimetic violence, corporal urges and the necessity to moderate them, in a specific symbolic and cultural perspective. 31 janvier 201