Erich Auerbach facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Erich Auerbach
Born	9 November 1892 Berlin, German Empire
Died	13 October 1957(1957-10-13) (aged 64) Wallingford, Connecticut, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Greifswald
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 (born November 9, 1892 – died October 13, 1957) was a German expert in languages and literature. He was also a literary critic, meaning he studied and wrote about books and stories. His most famous book is Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. This book looks at how reality has been shown in Western literature from ancient times to today. Many people consider it a very important book for understanding how realism works in stories. Auerbach is seen as one of the key people who helped create the study of comparative literature, which is about comparing literature from different cultures and languages.

Auerbach's Early Life and Studies

Erich Auerbach was born in Berlin, Germany. He was trained in a special way of studying languages and literature called philology. This field focuses on how languages and texts change over time. He became one of the most famous scholars in this area.

Auerbach fought as a soldier in World War I. After the war, he earned his advanced degree in 1921 from the University of Greifswald. For several years, he worked as a librarian at the Berlin State Library. In 1929, he joined the language and literature department at the University of Marburg. There, he published a well-received book called Dante: Poet of the Secular World.

Life in Exile and Famous Works

Because of the rise of National Socialism in Germany, Auerbach was forced to leave his job in 1935. He was exiled from Nazi Germany and moved to Istanbul, Turkey.

While living in Turkey, he wrote his most important book, Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. This book was published in 1946. From 1936 to 1947, he was the head of the Western languages and literatures department at Istanbul University.

Moving to the United States

In 1947, Auerbach moved to the United States. He taught at Pennsylvania State University for a time. Later, he worked at the Institute for Advanced Study.

In 1950, he became a professor of Romance languages and philology at Yale University. He held this important position until he passed away in 1957 in Wallingford, Connecticut.

Key Books by Erich Auerbach

Here are some of the important books Erich Auerbach wrote:

• Roman Filolojisine Giriş (published in Istanbul, 1944)
• Scenes from the Drama of European Literature (1959)
• Dante: Poet of the Secular World (originally 1929, translated into English in 1961)
• Figura (1938)
• Mimesis: Dargestellte Wirklichkeit in der abendländischen Literatur (published in Bern, 1946)
  • This book was published in English as Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature in 1955.
• Literary Language and Its Public in Late Latin Antiquity and in the Middle Ages (translated into English in 1993)
• Time, History, and Literature: Selected Essays of Erich Auerbach (published in 2013)

See also

In Spanish: Erich Auerbach para niños