Erich Auerbach and the Crisis of German Philology

Avihu Zakai is Professor of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of twelve books, among them Exile and Kingdom: History and Apocalypse in the Puritan Migration to America (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992); Jonathan Edwards’s Philosophy of History: The Re-Enchantment of the World in the Age of Enlightenment (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003, in addition to numerous articles and presentations for scholarly and general audiences.

• Introduction.- Erich Auerbach: Life, Times, and Works.- Dante and the “Discovery of European Representation of Man”.- The Crisis of German Philology: Aryan Philology and the Elimination of the Old Testament.- Two Responses to the German Crisis of Philology: Ernst Robert Curtius and Erich Auerbach.- Exile and Interpretation: The Struggle against Aryan Philology and Nazi Barbarism.- Mimesis – An Apologia for Western Judaeo-Christian Humanist Tradition in an Age of Peril, Tyranny, and Barbarism.- Epilogue: Exile, Interpretation, and Alienation.- Appendix 1: Constructing and Representing Reality: Hegel and the Making of Mimesis.- Appendix 2: Exile and Criticism: Edward Said’s Interpretation of Erich Auerbach.- Bibliography.- Author Index.- Subject Index.