Erich Auerbach. Philology of world literature. Essays and letters

Abstract

A review of the third book by Erich Auerbach that has been translated into Russian. The publication differs from the original, compiled by the German culturologist M. Bormuth, The Scar of Odysseus. Horizons of World Literature [Die Narbe des Odysseus: Horizonte der Weltliteratur]. Along with the first chapter of Mimesis (‘The scar on Odysseus’ leg’), the Russian edition also contains its final chapter ‘The brown stocking.’ The essays and selected correspondence appear in Russian for the first time. Auerbach’s essays on M. Montaigne, G. Vico, Dante, Virgil, and M. Proust demonstrate the panoramic view of literature from Homer and the Bible to modernism. Fourteen letters, including those addressed to W. Benjamin, E.Panofsky, T. Mann, and M. Buber, focus on exile, a topic on which Bormuth expounds as early as in the introduction. Bormuth’s explanatory notes for each letter help readers to understand the relationship between the correspondents as well as the historical background.