Philosophical anthropologist René Girard owes his ideas about mimetic desire to literature.
Tag Archives: violence
René Girard on What Lit Can Teach Us
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Cynthia Haven, mimetic desire, Rebecca Adams, René Girard, scapegoating Comments closed
America’s Political Violence Problem
Some see Trump as a “stochastic terrorism,” inciting others to violence. Cormac McCarthy may understand as well as anyone what’s going on.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy, Donald Trump, Gunfighter Nation, January 6, Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, Regeneration through Violence, Richard Slotkin, stochastic terrorism Comments closed
Gun Violence and Armageddon
Wednesday This past Sunday I shared a number of poems from Lucille Clifton’s Book of Days to reflect on how Christian nationalists, many of them wielding weapons of war, work against Jesus’s goal to bring the kingdom of God to Earth. One poem from the collection particularly stands out in the wake of the mass […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Easter 1916", "armageddon", Buffalo mass shooting, gun violence, Lucille Clifton, Uvalde mass shooting, W. B. Yeats Comments closed
Can We Be Beowulf Strong?
“Bowulf,” a poem about rage, violence, and the end of empire.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Anger, Beowulf, Beowulf poet, end of empire, grieving, resentment Comments closed
Pratchett’s Solution to Police Violence
Wednesday That Breonna Taylor’s family is receiving a $12 million settlement and the promise of police reform following her wrongful shooting by Louisville police is in part a testimony to Black Lives Matters protests and other instances of public pressure. Without them, we might not even know her name. With that in mind, I return […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, police brutality, Terry Pratchett, Thud! Comments closed
Battling Our Inner Darkness
Terry Pratchett’s “Thud!” deals with violence–both the violence we are witnessing around us and the violent thoughts these call up within ourselves. It helps explain police brutality.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged factionalism, police brutality, Terry Pratchett, Thud! Comments closed
When We Yield to Inner Darkness
The Odyssey explores how violence can swallow up those who engage in it. Odysseus is heroic in that he can listen to religious checks when blood lust threatens.
Teach Beowulf to Combat Violence
To teach students how to understand and respond to violence, Beowulf is a go-to work.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beowulf, Beowulf poet, John Milton, Paradise Lost Comments closed
“Beowulf” Understands U.S. Violence
Thursday When I launched this blog over 10 years ago, I called it Better Living through Beowulf because Beowulf is the starting text for those of us specializing in British Literature. I used Beowulf to represent all of literature and felt free to write about any literary work that provides insight into the life we […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beowulf, Beowulf poet, Dayton shooting, El Paso shooting, mass shooting, resentment, white terrorism Comments closed
