Erich Auerbach | |
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| Born | 9 November 1892 Berlin, German Empire |
| Died | 13 October 1957 (aged 64) Wallingford, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Greifswald |
| Occupation(s) | Literary critic, Philologist |
| Notable work | Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature |
| Institutions | University of Marburg Istanbul University Pennsylvania State University Yale University |
| Doctoral students | Frederic Jameson |
Erich Auerbach (November 9, 1892 – October 13, 1957) was a German philologist and comparative scholar and critic of literature. His best-known work is Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, a history of representation in Western literature from ancient to modern times frequently cited as a classic in the study of realism in literature.[1] Along with Leo Spitzer, Auerbach is widely recognized as one of the foundational figures of comparative literature.[2][3][4][5]
- ^ Greenberg, Mark L. (1992). Literature and Technology. Lehigh UP. p. 280. ISBN 978-0-934223-20-1. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
- ^ Apter, Emily (2003). "Global Translatio: The "Invention" of Comparative Literature, Istanbul, 1933". Critical Inquiry. 29 (2): 253–281. doi:10.1086/374027. ISSN 0093-1896. JSTOR 10.1086/374027. S2CID 161816827.
As many have pointed out, the foundational figures of comparative literature—Leo Spitzer, Erich Auerbach—came as exiles and emigres from war-torn Europe with a shared suspicion of nationalism.
- ^ Mufti, Aamir R. (1998-10-01). "Auerbach in Istanbul: Edward Said, Secular Criticism, and the Question of Minority Culture". Critical Inquiry. 25 (1): 104. doi:10.1086/448910. ISSN 0093-1896. S2CID 145333748.
In a brief but remarkable essay on the ethos of comparative literary scholarship in the postwar U.S., Emily Apter has argued that the discipline Auerbach, Curtius, Leo Spitzer, and others founded (or reformulated) on their arrival in the U.S. was structured in fundamental ways around the experience of exile and displacement.
- ^ Haen, Theo d' (2009). Literature for Europe?. Rodopi. p. 54. ISBN 978-90-420-2716-9.
We should remember that comparative literature in the United States was also largely started by immigrants – the refugees who fled Nazi Germany ( principal among them Auerbach, Spitzer, Poggolio and Wellek).
- ^ Hutchinson, Ben (2018). Comparative Literature: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. p. 78. ISBN 978-0-19-880727-8.
In the footsteps of pioneering figures such as Spitzer and Auerbach, the discipline of comparative literature began gathering pace in the 1950s largely as a transatlantic affair.