The Middle-(Un)man of Desire: A Girardian Reading of Perelandra

Authors

Clinton Manley, Bethlehem College and SeminaryFollow

Abstract

The French polymath René Girard presents a compelling argument that all desire is mimetic. According to Girard, we don’t actually know what we want; instead, we imitate the desires of others. These models of desire act as mediators, indicating what objects or ways of being are worth pursuing. For Girard, desire exists in this middle place between a subject, a model, and an object. He famously argues that all great literature leverages an awareness of mimetic dynamics; the greater the work, the more mimetically perspicacious the author.

Given Girard’s theory, we would expect the greatest fantasy authors to erect their sub-creative world with an intimate awareness of mimetic desire. When we turn to Lewis, this is exactly what we find. Lewis repeatedly explores this middle place of desire with mimetic characters like Edmund Pevensie, Orual, and the inner-circle-hungry Studdocks. But perhaps Lewis’s most insightful exploration of this middle place of desire comes in the middle book of his Ransom trilogy. Perelandra presents a supposal of what might have happened in the garden of Eden when Satan tempted Eve, and Lewis envisions this event as inexorably mimetic. On unfallen Perelandra, the Unman takes up the mantle of the pander or go-between (the most powerful kind of mimetic model) to entice the green woman to break God’s one command. I argue that the Unman’s entire strategy rests on leveraging the power of mimetic desire and explore how Girard’s insights reveal Lewis’s take on Satanic deception. Therefore, a Girardian reading of Perelandra offers fruitful insight into Lewis’s take on Satanic deception.

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