Texts of Persecution In Girard and Conspiracy Theories In Manzoni: a Pre-crime Approach

Take a look at my last (draft) paper under peer review:

"In Le bouc émissaire René Girard examined a work by the French poet Guillaume de Machouat, to return on the 'texts of persecution' during The Back Death. In this paper I suggest the emergence of both conspiracy theories and vindication texts, similar to ones still being used by contemporary terrorists, during the second wave of plague in Europe in the seventeenth century. This emergence was highlighted in Milan by Alessandro Manzoni, the nineteenth-century Italian Catholic novelist, poet and essayist. According to Girard the reconciliation mimesis to the detriment of the victim is culturally defined by myths and with less and less effectiveness by persecution texts. In analysing Manzoni's work, I will argue that vindications and conspiracy theories are the legacy of the persecution texts of the Early Modern Age: from texts by writers who "consider themselves judges", Guillaume de Machouat in Girard, to texts by people who are in fact judges, those in Milan in Manzoni's Storia della Colonna Infame. Furthermore, this analysis tries to give some evidence on the role the victims of political violence, both by states and nonstate actors, such as the victims of the Shoah and of terrorism, and their contribute to the efforts to find narratives that counter conspiracy theories and improve the efficacy of crime prevention work".

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