Erich Auerbach facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Erich Auerbach
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| Born | 9 November 1892 Berlin, German Empire
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| Died | 13 October 1957 (aged 64) Wallingford, Connecticut, U.S.
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| Alma mater | University of Greifswald |
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Notable work
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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 and frequently cited as a classic in the study of realism in literature. Along with Leo Spitzer, Auerbach is widely recognized as one of the foundational figures of comparative literature.
Biography
Auerbach, who was Jewish and born in Berlin, was trained in the German philological tradition and would eventually become, along with Leo Spitzer, one of its best-known scholars. After participating as a combatant in World War I, he earned a doctorate in 1921 at University of Greifswald, served as librarian at the Prussian State Library for some years, and in 1929 became a member of the philology faculty at the University of Marburg, publishing a well-received study entitled Dante: Poet of the Secular World.
With the rise of National Socialism Auerbach was forced to vacate his position in 1935. Exiled from Nazi Germany, he took up residence in Istanbul, Turkey, where he wrote Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature (1946), generally considered his masterwork. He was chair of the faculty for Western languages and literatures at Istanbul University from 1936 to 1947. Auerbach's life and work in Turkey is detailed and placed in historical and sociological context by Kader Konuk, East West Mimesis: Auerbach in Turkey (2010).
He moved to the United States in 1947, teaching at Pennsylvania State University and then working at the Institute for Advanced Study. He was appointed professor of Romance philology at Yale University in 1950, a position he held until his death in 1957 in Wallingford, Connecticut.
While at Yale, Auerbach supervised Fredric Jameson's doctoral work.
Works
- Roman Filolojisine Giriş Istanbul Universitesi Edebiyat Fakultesi: Horoz Yayinevi, 1944.
- Scenes from the Drama of European Literature. New York: Meridian, 1959. Republished 1984 by Manchester University Press. ISBN: 0-7190-1457-3.
- Dante: Poet of the Secular World Trans. Ralph Manheim. New York: NYRB Classics, 1929, 1961, 2007. ISBN: 978-1-59017-219-3.
- Figura, 1938
- Mimesis: Dargestellte Wirklichkeit in der abendländischen Literatur. Bern: Franke Verlag, 1946.
- Published in English as Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955.
- Literary Language and Its Public in Late Latin Antiquity and in the Middle Ages. Trans. Ralph Manheim. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. ISBN: 978-0-691-02468-4.
- Time, History, and Literature: Selected Essays of Erich Auerbach. Ed. James I. Porter. Trans. Jane O. Newman. Princeton University Press, 2013. ISBN: 978-0-691-13711-7.
See also
In Spanish: Erich Auerbach para niños
