Scenes from the Drama of European Literature

Auerbach, Erich

doi:10.2307/1771974

Cited by 114 publications

(46 citation statements)

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“…The figural view of reality is thus radically different from the allegorical one. In the broad historical and religious confines of the rise of Christianity, according to Auerbach, the -spiritualist-ethical-allegorical‖ interpretation had -little influence on the freshly converted people‖ to Christianity ( [21], p. 55). One of the main sources for the different power and role Auerbach assigned to figura and allegoria lay in their different origins: -the figural method in Europe goes back to Christian influences, while the allegorical method derives from ancient pagan sources, and also that the one is applied primarily to Christian, the other to ancient materials‖ ( [21], p. 63.…”

Section: "Figura" and "Allegory"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In sum, by claiming the predominance of figura in Christian thought, Auerbach opposed -the spiritualist-ethical-allegorical method." ( [21], p. 55).…”

Section: "Figura" and "Allegory"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In other words, figura is something real and historical which announces something else that is also real andhistorical. The relationship between the two is similarity ( [21], p. 29).…”

Section: "Figura" and "Allegory"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This applied as well to Auerbach, because, as René Wellek has written, what Auerbach produced -was oriented toward truth‖ [19] or, to use Auerbach's own words, toward -an absolute claim to historical truth [20]." Auerbach's seminal essay -Figura‖ [21] appeared in 1938, though its inception took place in Germany before Auerbach went into exile [22]. And after taking refuge in Istanbul in 1936, -Auerbach finished drafting the essay on figura from notes gathered before he had left Germany and from research undertaken in Turkey [23]."…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Auerbach argued that the word figura, originated -in pagan antiquity,‖ and was then developed by -the Church Fathers‖ into a system of singular figural interpretation of reality, which -was of the greatest historical importance,‖ ( [21], pp. 27-8) thus establishing close, intrinsic and inseparable ties between the Old and the New Testament, Judaism and Christianity.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Erich Auerbach and His "Figura": An Apology for the Old Testament in an Age of Aryan Philology

Zakai

Weinstein

2012

Religions

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Auerbach's goal in writing -Figura‖ and Mimesis was the rejection of Aryan philology and Nazi barbarism, based on racism, chauvinism and the mythologies of Blood, Volk and Soil, which eliminated the Old Testament from the Christian canon and hence from European culture and civilization. Following the Nazi Revolution of 1933 and the triumph of Aryan philology, Auerbach began writing -Figura,‖ published in 1938, where he provided an apology for the Old Testament's validity and credibility, striving to prove that the Jewish Bible was inseparable from the New Testament contrary to the claims of Aryan philology and Nazi historiography. Auerbach's -Figura‖ should be considered not merely as a philological study but also, and more importantly, as a crucial stage in his response to the crisis of German philology with Mimesis, in turn, seen as his affirmation, against Aryan philology's Nazi racist and völkish views, of the humanist, Judeo-Christian foundation of European civilization.

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Section: "Figura" and "Allegory"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In sum, by claiming the predominance of figura in Christian thought, Auerbach opposed -the spiritualist-ethical-allegorical method." ( [21], p. 55).…”

Section: "Figura" and "Allegory"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In other words, figura is something real and historical which announces something else that is also real andhistorical. The relationship between the two is similarity ( [21], p. 29).…”

Section: "Figura" and "Allegory"mentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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