Violence and the Sacred is René Girard's landmark study of human evil. Here Girard explores violence as it is represented and occurs throughout history, literature and myth. Girard's forceful and thought-provoking analyses of Biblical narrative, Greek tragedy and the lynchings and pogroms propagated by contemporary states illustrate his central argument that violence belongs to everyone and is at the heart of the sacred.

Acknowledgements
1.Sacrifice
2.The Sacrificial Crisis
3.Oedipus and the Surrogate Victim
4.The Origins of Myth and Ritual
5.Dionysus
6.From Mimetic Desire to the Monstrous Double
7.Freud and the Oedipus Complex
8.Totem and Taboo and the Incest Prohibition
9.Levi-Strauss, Structuralism and the Marriage Laws
10.The Gods, the Dead, the Sacred and Sacrificial Substitution
11.The Unity of All Rites
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

René Girard was the Andrew B. Hammond Professor Emeritus of French Language, Literature, and Civilization at Stanford University, USA.