Violence, Image and Victim in Bataille, Agamben and Girard

Bataille, Agamben and Girard are thinkers of the moment in as much as they each aim to explain the basis of society and culture in the context of power and the sacred. John Lechte shows that to study power and the sacred is to reveal the connection between violence and the image, a connection that also shows what it means to be a victim. Lechte concludes that no study of violence and the image can avoid engaging with the issue of what justice and injustice mean in relation to persecution and the victim as scapegoat. John Lechte is Emeritus Professor in Sociology at Macquarie University in Sydney.