More than half a century after its translation into English,Erich Auerbach’s Mimesis remains a masterpiece of literarycriticism. A brilliant display of erud. More than half a century after its translation into English, Erich Auerbach’s Mimesis remains a masterpiece of literary criticism. A brilliant display. LibraryThing Review. User Review – nbmars – LibraryThing. This book is extremely difficult. In each chapter, Auerbach compares two texts. Usually at least one.
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This was why I read Mimesis. We read a chapter a month basically and also read whichever book went along with that chapter. The World in Pantagruel’s Mouth: I should really give it another try.
Most critics praise his sprawling approach for its reveling in the complexities of each work and epoch without resorting to generalities and reductionism.
Withoutabox Submit to Film Festivals. I think a lot of that is because Auerbach grounds all of his chapters in specific, concrete texts.
This new expanded edition includes a substantial essay in introduction by Edward Said as well as an essay, never before translated into English, in which Auerbach responds to his critics.
Write a customer review. Still masterly, in the better sense. A brilliant display of erudition, wit, and wisdom, his exploration of how great European writers from Homer to Virginia Woolf depicted reality has taught generations how But I think on the whole he makes a compelling case, and this work deserves 5 stars if only for its sheer breadth of ambition and imagination.
This new expanded edition includes a substantial essay in introduction by Edward Said as well as an essay, never before translated into English, in which Auerbach responds to his critics. I have used the way Auerbach has looked at literature and used some of his ideas to look at modern books and drama. One nice thing about it is that I can read any section without worrying too much about what comes before or after.
Displaced as he was, Auerbach produced a work of great erudition that contains no footnotes, basing his arguments instead on searching, illuminating readings of key passages from his primary texts. The old man, of whom we know how he has become what he is is more of an individual than the young man; for it is only during the course of an eventful life that men are differentiated into full individuality; and it is this history of a personality which the Old Testament presents to us as the formation undergone by those whom God has chosen to be examples.
German philologist Erich Auerbach served as professor of Romance philology at Marburg Universitytaught at the Turkish State University in Istanbuland became professor of French and Romance philology at Yale University in Jan 24, Michel Van Goethem rated it it was amazing. Auerbach’s general thesis about the relationship between various literary texts and the representation of reality was now much clearer, but many details remained hidden from me due to my lack of Latin, old French, etc.
Oct 23, Mateo R. But, it seems to me he could have easily said ‘The author seeks to. He left for Turkey, where he taught at the state university in Istanbul.
The part on Odysseus’s scar is legendary excuse the pun. Still, the effort was worthwhile and Said’s introductory essay is excellent. A brilliant display of erudition, wit, and wisdom, his exploration of how great European writers from Homer to Virginia Woolf depicted reality has taught generations how to read Western literature. The title, Mimesis, is very insightful just by itself. The author typically quotes a short passage in its original language, a translation follows, then a close analysis of the language, and then a discussion of the historical milieu that gave rise to the work.
Mimesis: the representation of reality in Western literature
Highlighting the rhetorically determined simplicity of characters in the Odyssey what auegbach calls the “external” against what he regards as the psychological depth of the figures in the Old TestamentAuerbach suggests that the Old Testament gives a more powerful and historical impression than the Odysseywhich he classifies as closer to “legend” in which all details are leisurely fleshed out and all actions occur in a simple present — indeed even flashbacks are narrated in the present tense.
By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The claim of the Old Testament stories to represent universal history, their insistent relation—a auegbach constantly redefined by conflicts—to a single and hidden God, who yet shows himself and who guides universal history by promise and exaction, gives these stories an entirely different perspective from any the Homeric poems can kn.
Thank you for your feedback. Is this feature helpful? It is too serious for comedy, too contemporary and everyday for tragedy, politically too insignificant for history—and the form which was given it is one of such immediacy that its like does not exist in the literature of antiquity. Ships from and sold by sequiturbooks. I’ll stick to Bloom and his kind. For many readers, both inside and outside representatioon academy, “Mimesis” is among the finest works of literary criticism ever written.
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Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature
This mixture ultimately leads to a “popular realism” seen in the religious plays and sermons of the 12th ,imesis. So little are the Homeric heroes presented as developing or having developed, that most of them—Nestor, Agamemnon, Achilles—appear to be of an age fixed from the very first. He stays very close to the text of every work he selects, so you won’t get auerrbach in jargon or citations.
This essentially optimistic view of European history now appears as a defensive–and impassioned–response to the inhumanity he saw in the Third Reich. Want to Read saving…. For someone like me who takes the more traditional view, it produces a jolt of sorts.
I sure am glad I did. His aim was to show how from antiquity to the twentieth century literature progressed toward ever more naturalistic and democratic forms of representation. Amazon Drive Cloud storage from Amazon. Nov 04, Seana rated it it was amazing.
