Odysseus' Scar
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"Odysseus' Scar" is the first chapter of
"Two Basic Types"
According to Auerbach, the Old Testament and the Odyssey are “in their opposition ... basic types” of ancient epic literature. While the Old Testament can be various and arbitrary, multilayered in its characterization of people and events, the Odyssey is the epitome of detailed, organized and logical storytelling informed by the rhetorical tradition.
Although he acknowledged that both works exercised an enormous influence over subsequent
Content
In the essay, Auerbach begins with a close reading of brief excerpts from Homer in which, upon
In contrast, Auerbach's reading of Abraham's sacrifice in the Book of Genesis reveals a style of realism that is "fraught with background" and full of mystery and omissions. Unlike Homer's style, in which everything is clarified, the Elohist leaves unsaid any detail that does not pertain to the story's purpose. Conversely, what is said is always loaded with meaning, creating an effect of accumulating suspense. Auerbach contrasts this with the rhetorical style of the Odyssey, one in which "even when the most terrible things are occurring ... details prevent the reader from concentrating exclusively on a present crisis."
In the second half of the essay, Auerbach switches to a point-by-point comparison of the two works:
- The tyranny of truth: Truthhas no bearing on the relevance of Homer's stories, because the stories are "realistic" enough to be self-sufficient in their own conception of reality. On the other hand, the Bible has everything to do with its perceived relation to truth. The "realism" represented by the Bible is the direct consequence of this adherence to the "tyranny" of truth.
Looking at it from another point of view, the Odyssey is a
Ultimately, by the time Auerbach treats his chapter on Flaubert the work comes full circle. Like the Biblical writers whose faith in the so-called "tyrannical" truth of God produces an authentic expression of reality, Flaubert's "faith in the truth of language" (ch. 18) likewise represents "an entire human experience."
- Representation of Job) are irrevocably changed by the trials they undergo.
- History versus legend: The Odyssey is told like a legend—it is a little too convenient, too streamlined a story, and its characters are all "clearly outlined" men with "few and simple motives." In the Bible, reality is represented more like history—filled with ambiguity, confusion, and contradictory motives.
Criticism
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Several common critical objections to Auerbach's essay have been that the passages he chose for close reading were not sufficiently representative of the two texts. Some scholars[who?] maintain, instead, that the poetry (rather than the prose) of the Old Testament would be more appropriate for comparison to Homer's verse.
Unsurprisingly, much of the criticism of this essay has come from
Although Auerbach explicitly states in his essay that he chose the particular texts of the Odyssey and the Old Testament because of their subsequent influence on
Further reading
- Ankersmit, Frank R. "Why Realism? Auerbach and the Representation of Reality." Poetics Today, Vol. 20, No. 1. (Spring, 1999), pp. 53–75. JSTOR 1773343
- Bakker, Egbert J. "Mimesis as Performance: Rereading Auerbach's First Chapter" Poetics Today, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Spring, 1999), pp. 11–26
- Bloom, Harold. Homer. New York: Chelsea House Publications
- Breslin, Charles. "Philosophy or Philology: Auerbach and Aesthetic Historicism" Journal of the History of Ideas > Vol. 22, No. 3 (Jul., 1961), pp. 369–381
- Damrosch, David "Auerbach in Exile" Comparative Literature Vol. 47, No. 2 (Spring, 1995), pp. 97–117
- Fleischmann, Wolfgang Bernard. "Erich Auerbach's Critical Theory and Practice: An Assessment" MLN, Vol. 81, No. 5, General Issue. (Dec., 1966), pp. 535–541.
- Green, Geoffrey. Literary Criticism and the Structures of History: Erich Auerbach and Leo Spitzer. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1983.
- Landauer, Carl. "Mimesis" and Erich Auerbach's Self-Mythologizing" German Studies Review > Vol. 11, No. 1 (Feb., 1988), pp. 83–96
- Lerer, Seth. Literary history and the challenge of philology : the legacy of Erich Auerbach. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996.
- Porter, James I. "Erich Auerbach and the Judaizing of Philology." Critical Inquiry Vol. 35, No. 1 (Autumn 2008), pp. 115–47.
- Whallom, William. "Old Testament Poetry and Homeric Epic." Comparative Literature Vol. 18, No. 2 (Spring, 1966), pp. 113–131
External links
- "Odysseus' Scar", Willard R. Trask's translation from the 1953 first edition in English of Mimesis