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Erich Auerbach (1892-1957), best known for his classic literary study Mimesis, is celebrated today as a founder of comparative literature, a forerunner of secular criticism, and a prophet of global literary studies. Yet the true depth of Auerbach's thinking and writing remains unplumbed. Time, History, and Literature presents a wide selection of Auerbach's essays, many of which are little known outside the German-speaking world. Of the twenty essays culled from the full length of his career for this volume, twelve have never appeared in English before, and one is being published for the first time.
List of contents
Acknowledgments James I. Porter vii Introduction James I. Porter ix Translator's Note Jane O. Newman xlvii Part I. History and the Philosophy of History: Vico, Herder, and Hegel 1. Vico's Contribution to Literary Criticism (1958) 3 2. Vico and Herder (1932) 11 3. Giambattista Vico and the Idea of Philology (1936) 24 4. Vico and Aesthetic Historism (1948) 36 5. Vico and the National Spirit (1955) 46 6. The Idea of the National Spirit as the Source of the Modern Humanities (ca. 1955) 56 Part II. Time and Temporality in Literature 7. Figura (1938) 65 8. Typological Symbolism in Medieval Literature (1952) 114 9. On the Anniversary Celebration of Dante (1921) 121 10. Dante and Vergil (1931) 124 11. The Discovery of Dante by Romanticism (1929) 134 12. Romanticism and Realism (1933) 144 13. Marcel Proust and the Novel of Lost Time (1927) 157 Part III. Passionate Subjects, from the Bible to Secular Modernity 14. Passio as Passion (1941) 165 15. The Three Traits of Dante's Poetry (1948) 188 16. Montaigne the Writer (1932) 200 17. On Pascal's Political Theory (1941) 215 18. Racine and the Passions (1927) 236 19. On Rousseau's Place in History (1932) 246 20. The Philology of World Literature (1952) 253 Appendix: Sources for Translated Citations Jane O. Newman 267 Bibliographical Overview James I. Porter 271 Index 277
About the author
James I. Porter is Chancellor's Professor in the Department of Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley. Jane O. Newman is Professor of Comparative Literature and European Languages and Studies at the University of California, Irvine.
Summary
Important essays from one of the giants of literary criticism, including a dozen published here in English for the first time
Erich Auerbach (1892-1957), best known for his classic literary study Mimesis, is celebrated today as a founder of comparative literature, a forerunner of secular criticism, and a prophet of global literary studies. Yet the true depth of Auerbach's thinking and writing remains unplumbed. Time, History, and Literature presents a wide selection of Auerbach's essays, many of which are little known outside the German-speaking world. Of the twenty essays culled for this volume from the full length of his career, twelve have never appeared in English before, and one is being published for the first time.
Foregrounded in this major new collection are Auerbach's complex relationship to the Judaeo-Christian tradition, his philosophy of time and history, and his theory of human ethics and responsible action. Auerbach effectively charts out the difficult discovery, in the wake of Christianity, of the sensuous, the earthly, and the human and social worlds. A number of the essays reflect Auerbach's responses to an increasingly hostile National Socialist environment. These writings offer a challenging model of intellectual engagement, one that remains as compelling today as it was in Auerbach's own time.
Additional text
"It would be more accurate to say, then, that Auerbach did not fight against the German philological tradition but rather fought over it, so as to integrate it with the wider Western European tradition and its humanistic legacy. The essays in this excellent edition alongside Mimesis attest that he accomplished that mission to perfection."---Joseph Mali, European Legacy
