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Eric Lawrence Gans (born August 21, 1941) is an American philosophical anthropologist and literary theorist. Gans established a
human science Human science (or human sciences in the plural) studies the philosophical, biological, social, justice, and cultural aspects of human life. Human science aims to expand the understanding of the human world through a broad interdisciplinary approa ...
called
generative anthropology Generative anthropology is a field of study based on the hypothesis that the origin of human language happened in a singular event. The discipline of Generative Anthropology centers upon this original event which Eric Gans calls The Originary Sc ...
(GA), which is based on the hypothesis that
representation Representation may refer to: Law and politics *Representation (politics), political activities undertaken by elected representatives, as well as other theories ** Representative democracy, type of democracy in which elected officials represent a ...
, language—insofar as it is the most fundamental form of representation—and the human species—insofar as it is defined against other animal species by its unique possession of language—could only have originated in an event, and which explains culture—insofar as it constitutes systems of representations—as the "generative" development of this event. Gans claims that GA serves as a better foundation for the
human science Human science (or human sciences in the plural) studies the philosophical, biological, social, justice, and cultural aspects of human life. Human science aims to expand the understanding of the human world through a broad interdisciplinary approa ...
s than the alternatives of (a) the natural sciences and (b) religion as it: * (a) actually explains the origin of language unlike the natural sciences, which, by "explaining" it in terms of human language gradually emerging from non-human animal sign systems—ultimately in an attempt to ignore the uniqueness of human language—do not actually explain it at all; and * (b) nevertheless remains consistent with the natural sciences unlike religion, which, despite actually explaining the origin of language, makes recourse to the supernatural in its explanations. Gans edits ''Anthropoetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology'', an academic journal devoted to GA. He also publishes the ''Chronicles of Love and Resentment'', a weblog dedicated to his reflections on a range of topics including popular culture, film, contemporary politics, philosophy and religion. Gans has taught and published on 19th century literature, literary theory and film in the
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
Department of French and Francophone studies.


Life

Eric Lawrence Gans was born on 21 August 1941 in
Parkchester Parkchester is a planned community and neighborhood originally developed by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and located in the east Bronx, New York City. The immediate surrounding area also takes its name from the complex. Its boundari ...
,
the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...
to a middle-class Jewish family.Eric Gans, "Prolegomenon to an intellectual autobiography," ''Chronicles of Love and Resentment'', April 15, 2023, https://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/views/vw769/. In 1957 Gans graduated from the
Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science is a State school, public Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school in the Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science ...
. In the same year he attended Columbia College. During his first year he majored in mathematics before switching to French at the end of his second. In 1960 he graduated with a BA in French. In the same year he attended
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
. During this period he studied with
René Girard René Noël Théophile Girard (; ; 25 December 1923 – 4 November 2015) was a French-American historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science whose work belongs to the tradition of philosophical anthropology. Girard was the a ...
, who directed his dissertation on the early works of
Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...
. In 1961 he received an MA in Romance languages and in 1966 a
PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
. From 1965-67 he taught at SUNY at Fredonia and from 1967-69 at
Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...
. In 1969 Gans started teaching at
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
. During this period he continued studying with Girard and was introduced to Batesonian psychology, particularly the notion of "pragmatic paradox" in
Paul Watzlawick Paul Watzlawick (July 25, 1921 – March 31, 2007) was an Austrian-American family therapist, psychologist, communication theorist, and philosopher. A theoretician in communication theory and radical constructivism, he commented in the fields o ...
,
Janet Beavin Bavelas Janet Clare Beavin Bavelas ( Helmick; February 12, 1940 – December 12, 2022) was an experimental social psychologist who studied gesture, contributing to our understanding of face-to-face interaction. An American, educated in the U.S., her enti ...
and Donald deAvila Jackson's ''Pragmatics of Human Communication'' (1967), which influenced his own notion of "esthetic paradox" in '' Musset et le drame tragique'' (1974), ''Le Paradoxe de
Phèdre ''Phèdre'' (; originally ''Phèdre et Hippolyte'') is a French dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by Jean Racine, first performed in 1677 at the theatre of the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris. Composition and premiere With ...
'' (1975) and ''Essais d'esthétique paradoxale'' (1977). In 1976 he received full professorship and from 1974-77 sat as chairman of UCLA's French and Francophone Studies Department. In 1977 he was invited by Girard to
Johns Hopkins Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American merchant, investor, and philanthropist. Born on a plantation, he left his home to start a career at the age of 17, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland, where he remained for mos ...
as a visiting professor. At the end of his visit he conceived the germ of GA by combining his notions of esthetic paradox and the "ostensive sign" with Girard's notion of the scapegoat mechanism in ''La violence et le sacré'' (1972). Upon returning from
Johns Hopkins Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American merchant, investor, and philanthropist. Born on a plantation, he left his home to start a career at the age of 17, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland, where he remained for mos ...
he started writing ''The Origin of Language: A Formal Theory of Representation'' (1981). In 1981, the same year that ''The Origin of Language'' was published, Gans resat as chairman of UCLA's French Department. In the subsequent years he elaborated and refined his hypothesis in a series of works starting with ''The End of Culture: Toward a Generative Anthropology'' (1985). In 1987 he started teaching seminars on GA. Later, in 2010, alumni of these seminars would found the Generative Anthropology Society & Conference (GASC), of which Gans is an honorary member. In 1990 UCLA's French Department held its first GA colloquium, which featured
Marvin Harris Marvin Harris (August 18, 1927 – October 25, 2001) was an American anthropologist. He was born in Brooklyn, New York City. A prolific writer, he was highly influential in the development of cultural materialism and environmental determinis ...
as keynote speaker. In 1994, as a result of the activity of GA seminar alumni, the MLA held a session on GA at its annual meeting. In 1995 Gans co-founded ''Anthropoetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology'', a scholarly journal devoted to GA. During the 90s he sponsored a series of talks at the
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
Society for the Study of Religion, which was chaired by
David C. Rapoport David Charles Rapoport (January 7, 1929 – February 10, 2024) was an American Professor Emeritus of Political Science at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) who focused on the study of terrorism. Biography Rapoport received his Ph.D. ...
. In 2007 he was honored with distinguished professor status. In 2014 he resigned from his professorship after being found in violation of UCLA's sexual misconduct policy.Jacob Preal, "Professor emeritus found to have violated UC sexual misconduct policy," ''Daily Bruin'', February 28, 2017, https://new.dailybruin.com/post/professor-emeritus-found-to-have-violated-uc-sexual-misconduct-policy. Since 2015 he has assumed distinguished professor emeritus status.


Generative anthropology


Background

Generative anthropology Generative anthropology is a field of study based on the hypothesis that the origin of human language happened in a singular event. The discipline of Generative Anthropology centers upon this original event which Eric Gans calls The Originary Sc ...
grew out of Gans's association with Girard at Johns Hopkins University. Gans was one of Girard's first doctoral students, receiving his PhD in 1966. But it was only on the publication of '' Violence and the Sacred'' in 1972 that Gans became interested in Girard's idea of mimetic desire and the connection between violence and the sacred in Girard's work. The concept of mimetic desire forms one of the cornerstones of generative anthropology. Girard argues that human desire is essentially cultural or social in nature, and thus distinct from mere appetite, which is biological. For Girard, desire is triangular in structure, an imitation of the desire of another. Desire, therefore, leads to conflict, when two individuals attempt to possess the same object. In a group, this mimetic conflict typically escalates into a mimetic crisis which threatens the very existence of the group. For Girard, this conflict is resolved by the
scapegoat In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of a pair of kid goats that is released into the wilderness, taking with it all sins and impurities, while the other is sacrificed. The concept first appears in the Book of Leviticus, in which a goat is designate ...
mechanism, in which the destructive energies of the group are purged through the violence directed towards an arbitrarily selected victim. Girard sees the scapegoating mechanism as the origin of human culture and language.


Originary hypothesis

Gans agrees with Girard that human language originates in the context of a mimetic crisis, but he does not find the scapegoat mechanism, by itself, as an adequate explanation for the origin of language. Gans hypothesizes that language originates in "an aborted gesture of appropriation", which signifies the desired object as sacred and which memorializes the birth of language, serving as the basis for rituals which recreate the originary event symbolically. The originary sign serves to defer the mimetic violence threatening the group, hence Gans's capsule definition of culture as "the deferral of violence through representation". For a more detailed explanation of the originary hypothesis, see
generative anthropology Generative anthropology is a field of study based on the hypothesis that the origin of human language happened in a singular event. The discipline of Generative Anthropology centers upon this original event which Eric Gans calls The Originary Sc ...
.


Scene of representation

For Gans, language is essentially "scenic" in character, that is, structurally defined by a sacred center and human periphery. In the secular culture which develops later, "significance" serves as an attenuated form of the sacred. The scene of representation is a true cultural universal and the basic model for cultural analysis. Generative anthropology attempts to understand the various means by which transcendence or meaning (which is always ethically functional) is created on a scene of representation.


Criticism

The main source of criticism directed against Gans's work comes from Girard himself, who claims that generative anthropology is just another version of
social contract In moral and political philosophy, the social contract is an idea, theory, or model that usually, although not always, concerns the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. Conceptualized in the Age of Enlightenment, it ...
theories of origins. Gans has responded to Girard's criticisms and defended his theory in his books and articles. Others take issue with Gans's conservative political views as expressed in his ''Chronicles of Love and Resentment''. Gans has entered into conversation with contrasting views on Middle Eastern politics in his published dialogue with
Ammar Abdulhamid Ammar Abdulhamid (; born 30 May 1966) is a Syrian-born author, human rights activist, political dissident, co-founder and president of the Tharwa Foundation. Ammar was featured in the Arabic version of ''Newsweek'' magazine as one of 43 people ...
: "A Dialogue on the Middle East and Other Subjects".


Bibliography


Books and monographs

*''The Discovery of Illusion:
Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...
's Early Works, 1835–37''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971. . *''Un Pari contre l'histoire: les premières nouvelles de Mérimée (''Mosaïque'')''. Paris: Minard (Lettres modernes), 1972. *'' Musset et le drame tragique''. Paris: J. Corti, 1974. *''Le Paradoxe de
Phèdre ''Phèdre'' (; originally ''Phèdre et Hippolyte'') is a French dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by Jean Racine, first performed in 1677 at the theatre of the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris. Composition and premiere With ...
suivi du "Paradoxe constitutif du roman."'' Paris: A.G. Nizet, 1975. . *''Essais d'esthétique paradoxale''. Paris: Gallimard, 1977. . *''The Origin of Language: A Formal Theory of Representation''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981. . *''The End of Culture: Toward a Generative Anthropology''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985. . *''
Madame Bovary ''Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners'' (; ), commonly known as simply ''Madame Bovary'', is the début novel by France, French writer Gustave Flaubert, originally published in 1856 and 1857. The eponymous character, Emma Bovary, lives beyond he ...
: The End of Romance''. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1989. . *''Science and Faith: The Anthropology of Revelation''. Savage, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1990. . *''Originary Thinking: Elements of Generative Anthropology''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1993. . *''Signs of Paradox: Irony, Resentment, and Other Mimetic Structures''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1997. . *''The Scenic Imagination: Originary Thinking from Hobbes to the Present Day''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2007. . *''
Carole Landis Carole Landis (born Frances Lillian Mary Ridste; January 1, 1919 – July 5, 1948) was an American actress and singer. She worked as a contract player for Twentieth Century-Fox in the 1940s. Her breakout role was as the female lead in the 1940 ...
: A Most Beautiful Girl''. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2008. . *''A New Way of Thinking: Generative Anthropology in Religion, Philosophy, Art''. Aurora, Colo.: Davies Group Publishers, 2011. . *''The Girardian Origins of Generative Anthropology''. Imitatio/Amazon Digital Services, 2012. *''bijela krivnja / white guilt''. Zagreb, Croatia: Kršćanska Sadašnjost, 2013. . *
Les fleurs du mal ''Les Fleurs du mal'' (; ) is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. ''Les Fleurs du mal'' includes nearly all Baudelaire's poetry, written from 1840 until his death in August 1867. First published in 1857, it was important in the ...
: ''a new translation''. New York: Spuyten Duyvil, 2015. . *''Science and Faith: The Anthropology of Revelation'' (2nd ed.). Aurora, Colo.: Noesis Press, 2015. . *(with Adam Katz) ''The First Shall Be The Last: Rethinking Antisemitism''. Leiden: Brill/Martinus Nijhoff, 2015. . *''The Origin of Language: A New Edition''. New York: Spuyten Duyvil, 2019. .


Selected articles

*"Differences." ''Modern Language Notes'' 96, no. 4 (May 1981): 792-808. https://doi.org/10.2307/2905837. *"The Culture of Resentment." ''Philosophy and Literature'' 8, no. 1 (April 1984): 55-66. https://doi.org/10.1353/phl.1984.0043. *"The Unique Source of Religion and Morality." ''Anthropoetics'' 1, no. 1 (June 1995). http://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap0101/gans. *"Mimetic Paradox and the Event of Human Origin." ''Anthropoetics'' 1, no. 2 (December 1995). http://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap0102/mimesis. *"Plato and the Birth of Conceptual Thought." ''Anthropoetics'' 2, no. 2 (January 1997). http://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/Ap0202/plato. *"The Holocaust and the Victimary Revolution." In ''Poetics of the Americas: Race, Founding, and Textuality'', edited by Bainard Cowan and Jefferson Humphries, 123-39. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997. *"Originary Narrative." ''Anthropoetics'' 3, no. 2 (February 1998). http://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap0302/narrative. *"The Little Bang: The Early Origin of Language." ''Anthropoetics'' 5, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 1999). http://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap0501/gans-2. *"The Sacred and the Social: Defining Durkheim's Anthropological Legacy." ''Anthropoetics'' 6, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2000). http://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap0601/durkheim. *"The Body Sacrificial." In ''The Body Aesthetic: From Fine Art to Body Modification'', edited by Tobin Siebers, 159-78. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000. *"Originary Democracy and the Critique of Pure Fairness." In ''The Democratic Experience and Political Violence'', edited by David C. Rapoport and Leonard Weinberg, 308-24. London; Portland: F. Cass, 2001. *(with Ammar Abdulhamid) "A Dialogue on the Middle East and Other Subjects." ''Anthropoetics'' 7, no. 2 (Fall 2001/Winter 2002). http://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap0702/dialog. *"The Market and Resentment." In ''Passions in Economy, Politics, and the Media'', edited by Wolfgang Palaver and Petra Steinmar-Pösel, 85-102. Vienna: Lit Verlag, 2005. *"White Guilt, Past and Future." ''Anthropoetics'' 12, no. 2 (Fall 2006/Winter 2007). http://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap1202/wg. *"On Firstness" and "Generative Anthropology and Bronx Romanticism." In ''The Originary Hypothesis: A Minimal Proposal for Humanistic Inquiry'', edited by Adam Katz, 45-57 and 153-64. Aurora, Colo.: Davies Group Publishers, 2007. *"Generative Anthropology: A New Way of Thinking?" ''Anthropoetics'' 13, no. 2 (Special GATE Issue, Fall 2007). http://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap1302/1302gans. *"On the One Medium." In ''Mimesis, Movies, and Media'' (''Violence, Desire, and the Sacred 3''), edited by Scott Cowdell, Chris Fleming, and Joel Hodge, 7-15. New York; London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015. *"World War II and the Victimary Era." In ''Apocalypse Deferred: Girard and Japan'', edited by Jeremiah L. Alberg, 41-54. Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 2017. *"Generative Anthropology." In ''The Palgrave Handbook of Mimetic Theory and Religion'', edited by James Alison and Wolfgang Palaver, 447-53. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. *"The Screenic." In ''Mimetic Theory and Film'', edited by Paolo Bubbio and Chris Fleming, 109-21. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. *"In the Beginning Was the Word: Generative Anthropology as a Religious Anthropology." In ''Generative Anthropology as Transdisciplinary Inquiry: Religion, Science, Language & Culture'', edited by Magdalena Zlocka-Dabrowska and Beata Gaj, 21-34. Warsaw, Poland: Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 2018.


See also

* Fundamental anthropology *
Deconstruction In philosophy, deconstruction is a loosely-defined set of approaches to understand the relationship between text and meaning. The concept of deconstruction was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who described it as a turn away from ...


Notes


References

* Gans, Eric. ''The Origin of Language: A Formal Theory of Representation''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981. * Gans, Eric. ''Science and Faith: The Anthropology of Revelation''. Savage, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1990. * Gans, Eric. "Prolegomenon to an intellectual autobiography." ''Chronicles of Love and Resentment''. April 15, 2023. https://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/views/vw769/. * Gans, Eric. "Origins of Generative Anthropology." ''Chronicles of Love and Resentment''. April 22, 2023. https://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/views/vw770/. * Preal, Jacob. "Professor emeritus found to have violated UC sexual misconduct policy." ''Daily Bruin'', February 28, 2017. https://new.dailybruin.com/post/professor-emeritus-found-to-have-violated-uc-sexual-misconduct-policy.


Further reading

*Gans, Eric. "A Brief Introduction to Generative Anthropology." Anthropoetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology. February 16, 2017. https://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/gaintro/. *Goldman, Peter. "Why Generative Anthropology?" Chronicles of Love and Resentment. July 13, 2013. https://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/views/vw445/. *Bertonneau, Thomas F. "Eric L. Gans on Language, Culture, God, and the Market." The Brussels Journal. July 5, 2009. http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/3995. *Bertonneau, Thomas F. "The Gist of Eric L. Gans: From The Origin of Language to The Scenic Imagination." The Brussels Journal. November 11, 2009. http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/4167. *Bartlett, Andrew. "From First Hesitation to Scenic Imagination: Originary Thinking with Eric Gans." ''Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture'' 15 (2008): 89-172. https://doi.org/10.1353/ctn.0.0026. *Bertonneau, Thomas F. "The Origin of Language and the Generative Anthropology of E. L. Gans: An Introduction." ''Michigan Academician'' 28, no. 2 (1996): 419-30. *Iser, Wolfgang. "Anthropological Theory: Gans." In ''How to Do Theory'', 131-43. Malden, Ma.: Blackwell Pub., 2005.


External links


UCLA Profile of Eric GansBibliography of Eric GansChronicles of Love and ResentmentAnthropoetics: The Journal of Generative AnthropologyGenerative Anthropology Society & Conference
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gans, Eric 1941 births Living people Philosophical anthropology Philosophers of social science Philosophers of language Literary theorists