Girard coins the term textes de persécution (persecutory texts) to refer to texts which are unconsciously structured by the sacrificial logic that he has uncovered. Particularly in Le Bouc émissaire, René Girard highlights how these texts are complicit with the designation and persecution of scapegoats; for example, anti-Semitic texts are written as if their authors really believed in the guilt of the Jews, so such texts actively encourage and participate in the violence of the persecutory mechanism.
Tomorrow, in the framework of THE MIMETIC TURN: Final International Conference on Homo Mimeticus , I'll present my paper on modern conspiracy theories: scapegoats and narratives around the Great Plague of Milan (1930) and today challenges in preventing violent extremism.
