Time, History, and Literature: Selected Essays of Erich Auerbach

by Jane O. Newman (Translator), Erich Auerbach (Author), James I. Porter (Editor)

New
Paperback
2016
$24.17

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.

Synopsis

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.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 336
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 16 Feb 2016
ISBN 10: 0691169071
ISBN 13: 9780691169071

Media Reviews

Jane O. Newman, Co-Winner of the 2014 Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Scholarly Study of Literature, Modern Language Association The 20 essays collected here--many of them translated from the German for the first time--bear out editor Porter's contention that Auerbach (1892-1957), best known for his literary study Mimesis, was one of the 20th century's great literary critics... Those well-versed in comparative literature will find his insights stimulating. --Publishers Weekly Editor Porter purposefully organizes Auerbach's writings ... in order to sketch a historical panorama of erudite language to predictions for future literary invention. He skillfully accomplishes these goals by drawing out examples of Auerbach's writing focused on humans and their language as earthly (irdisch) artifacts, each created with a historical perspective, not just as poetic language steeped in spiritual motifs alone... [S]uited for literary theorists writing from disparate paradigms and for most scholars from the humanities engaged in granularly close readings pursuing the understanding of writing as one of many human creations. --Library Journal For scholar and non-academic alike, this work is of extreme importance, especially given the relatively scanty number of works available on such a key figure to the development of the study of comparative literature. --Lois Henderson, BookPleasures.com This collection will be invaluable to anyone studying literary theory, historiography, or cultural studies. --Choice The publication of Time, History, and Literature: Selected Essays of Erich Auerbach provides an excellent opportunity to witness a master philologist at work. --Joseph Epstein, Weekly Standard [A] career-spanning collection that includes several essays which are appearing in English for the first time... [E]xcellent introduction... One of the most valuable aspects of this volume is that these essays set out ... the extent of Auerbach's intellectual debt to Vico, whom he credits as the first methodical theorist of history... The densely written, subtle essays towards the end of Time, Literature, and History ... are models of careful scholarly contextualization and analysis. --James Ley, Sydney Review of Books

Author Bio

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.