Resurgent religious themes in contemporary film

The task involved in Girardian approaches to film has‚ thus far, been similar to what has animated Girardian approaches to other texts. This has comprised a double hermeneutic, where interpretation operates in two directions: First, theoretical attention is invested in the object of analysis (the book‚ film, or artwork), to see how and to what extent a Girardian approach may illuminate it‚ hopefully in ways hitherto unknown; and second—and this is integral to Girardian thought—the text is examined with respect to how it reads or interprets us. Girardian film criticism typically focuses on filmic depictions of the mediation of desire (including romantic mediations and love triangles), the dissolution of differences, rivalry, collective violence and scapegoating, and ideas of sacrifice and divinity.