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René Girard, Aristotle, and the Rebirth of Tragedy MIRROR OF PRINCES: RENE GIRARD, ARISTOTLE, AND THE REBIRTH OF TRAGEDY Christopher S. Morrissey M.A. (Classics), University of British Columbia, 1999 B.A. (Ancient Greek), University of British Columbia, 1995 B .Sc. (General), University of Manitoba, 1988 DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Faculty of Arts and Social Science under Special Arrangements O Christopher S. Morrissey 2005 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Fall 2005 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL Name: Christopher Stewart Morrissey Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Title of Thesis: Mirror of Princes: Rene Girard, Aristotle, and the Rebirth of Tragedy Examining Committee: Dr. Stephen Duguid, Chair Dr. David C. Mirhady, Senior Supervisor Associate Professor, Humanities Dr. Ian Angus, Supervisor Professor, Humanities - ---- Dr. Paul Budra, Supervisor Associate Professor, English Dr. Anthony J. Podlecki, Supervisor Professor Emeritus, Classical, Near Eastern & Religious Studies, University of British Columbia Dr. Christine Jones, Examiner Lecturer, Humanities Dr. Eric Gans, External Examiner Professor, French & Francophone Studies University of California, Los Angeles Date Approved: NOV JOV. 6/26 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENCE The author, whose copyright is declared on the title page of this work, has granted to Simon Fraser University the right to lend this thesis, project or extended essay to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. The author has further granted permission to Simon Fraser University to keep or make a digital copy for use in its circulating collection. The author has further agreed that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by either the author or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without the author's written permission.\ Permission for public performance, or limited permission for private scholarly use, of any multimedia materials forming part of this work, may have been granted by the author. This information may be found on the separately catalogued multimedia material and in the signed Partial Copyright Licence. The original Partial Copyright Licence attesting to these terms, and signed by this author, may be found in the original bound copy of this work, retained in the Simon Fraser University Archive. W. A. C. Bennett Library Simon Fraser University Burnaby, BC, Canada Abstract RenC Girard is a theorist who finds evidence in literature and drama for his anthropological hypothesis of human origin and the role of scapegoating in human affairs. The originary scene of human evolution is described by the generative anthropology of Eric Gans in a way that refines Girard. Generative anthropology also permits an evolutionary model of esthetic form founded on the originary scene that can account for Aristotle's insights into both esthetic and political affairs. As a comparison of Girard's postmodern analysis with the classical analysis of Aristotle's Poetics suggests, there are constants in esthetic evolution. A fivefold pattern of narrative universals can be abstracted from Aristotle and Girard as a model for tracking evolutionary progress and cultural rebirth. This model for esthetic history may also be developed to account for political form as evolved in particular cultures and mirrored in their drama (Aeschylus' Athens and Shakespeare's England). Girard's political model is impractically apocalyptic because it demands the end of the allegedly one and only earthly regime ("scapegoating"). But Aristotle's many mixed regime types in the Politics afford a better evolutionary model for how regime change is mirrored in esthetic form to commemorate real transitions between historical epochs. Such cultural change is initiated by the deliberate "firstness" of statesmanlike prudence. As generative anthropology suggests, the classical and neoclassical esthetics are distinct eras in the evolution of human experience. This evolution is visible in the transitions commemorated in Aeschylus' Oresteia and Shakespeare's Henriad. In the classical esthetic, the separation of office from person, which establishes a secure basis for territorial loyalty, is signified in Aeschy1u.s' Oresteia. This is what Athena's Eumenides represent in the new context of the Areopagus, as society evolves from Orestes, who represented requisite divine justice in the context of Agamemnon's murder. In the neoclassical esthetic, the binding of territorial loyalty to the corporate personality of the human sovereign who rules by consent is signified in Shakespeare's Henriad. This is what Henry V represents in the new context of Agincourt, as society evolves from Henry IV, who represented requisite human ceremony in the context of Richard 11's deposition. Dedication B.V.M. 0 Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimiprodisti, attingens a$ne usque adjhem, fortiter suaviter disponensque omnia: veni docendum nos viam prudentiae. 0 Wisdom, which camest out of the mouth of the most High, and reachest from one end to another, mightily and sweetly ordering all things: Come and teach us the way of prudence. Acknowledgements Thank you to my senior supervisor David C. Mirhady for being both friend and mentor. Thank you to my committee, Anthony J. Podlecki, Ian Angus, and Paul Budra, which has supported and encouraged me in my intellectual endeavours and this work in particular. Thank you also to Robert B. Todd for my early philological training and ongoing support. I am indebted to the scholarship of the following authors, each of whom wrote a book or an article that caused me to change my thoughts on an important issue at some point while I was writing this dissertation: Benedict M. Ashley, John N. Deely, Eric L. Gans, Rene Girard, Victor Davis Hanson, Donald Kagan, Anthony Kenny, Carnes Lord, Harvey C. Mansfield, Jacques Maritain, Ralph McInerny, Joseph Ratzinger, Anthony Rizzi, James V. Schall, Raymund Schwager, Roger Scruton, Vincent E. Smith, William A. Wallace, and James A. Weisheipl. I am also thankful for stimulating conversations with Pablo Bandera, Andrew Bartlett, Gerald Boersma, Ryan Chace, Pat Gillespie, Tom Hamel, John Horsman, Robert Stackpole, and Richard van Oort. Early versions of portions of this dissertation were delivered as papers at various meetings of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion and of the Classical Association of the Canadian West. An earlier version of part of Chapter Two appeared in Anthropoetics. I extend my thanks to the many who gave me feedback on these trial versions. Table of Contents .. Approval ........................................................................................................................u ... Abstract ........................................................................................................................111 Dedication ...................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... vi .. Table of Contents ........................................................................................................ vu List of Tables ................................................................................................................ix Glossary including Abbreviations ................................................................................. x General Introduction: Mirror of Princes ..................................................................... 1 What is the Rebirth of Tragedy? ................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Tragic Content ..................................................................................... 13 Introduction: The Scapegoat as Protagonistlcontent ................................................... 13 Girard and Aristotle ................................................................................................... 17 Girard's Three Main Hypotheses ............................................................................ 17 Aristotle's Four Explanatory Causes ...................................................................... 23 Girard's Five Mythic Clues .................................................................................... 30 Aristotle's Fivefold Analysis of Tragedy's Semiosis .............................................. 34 Girard's Cultural Poetics ............................................................................................ 38 Mythic Content: A Plague of Disorder (Metabasis) ................................................ 38 Mythic Form (Simple): Violent Expulsion (Pathos) ............................................... 41 Mythic Form (Complex I): Signs of Victimage (Anagn6risis) ................................ 43 Mythic Form (Complex 11): Reversing (Dis)order (Peripeteia) ............................... 46 Cultural Form-of-the-Content: Crime, Blame, Error (Hamartia) .............................48 Summary: An Empirioschematic Evolutionary Model for Esthetics .......................
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