[lit-ideas] Re: Auerbach on Mimesis
- From: "John McCreery" <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2008 09:04:41 +0900
On Wed, Apr 2, 2008 at 3:15 AM, Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
> Not adding much here I'm afraid,
You may think so, but that "It seems almost
commonsense that the top-down cosmology of the
ancient Near East would clash with the democratic
universe of the Greeks" is interesting.
Go back for a moment to Auerbach's summary:,
The two styles, in their opposition, represent basic types: on the one hand
[*The Odyssey* 's] fully externalized description, uniform illustration,
uninterrupted connection, free expression, all events in the foreground,
displaying unmistakable meanings, few elements of historical development and
of psychological perspective; [in the Old Testament] on the other hand,
certain parts brought into high relief, others left obscure, abruptness,
suggestive influence of the unexpressed, "background" quality, multiplicity
of meanings and the need for interpretation, universal-historical claims,
development of the concept of the historically becoming, and preoccupation
with the problematic.
Auerbach himself associates the Greek [actually here Homeric] style with an
aristocratic society in which everyone knows his or her place and is
supposed to behave appropriately: A hero's gotta do what a hero's gotta do,
that sort of thing. And a lot of experience with nitty-gritty democratic
politics tells me that democracy is often fertile ground for obscurity,
abruptness, hinting at the unexpressed, stuff going on in the background
that is rarely brought to light, multiplicity of meanings,
universal-historical claims, etc.
On the other hand, Terry Eagleton suggests, in a way that I suspect drives
Walter crazy, that Kant's project can be read as an attempt to make reason
an absolute monarch with the motley crowd of the senses firmly under
control, the mind as a Prussian kingdom. Be that as it may, perfect clarity
in ranks, procedures, laws, chains of command, etc., meticulous attention to
detail and a strong sense that "this is the way it is" present tense, full
stop, is frequently associated with absolute monarchy.
Makes this anthropologist wonder how the analogy clarity and order are to
democracy as obscurity and arbitrariness are to absolute monarchy became
commonsense? (Which is, by the way, precisely the way I took on board your
comment before I started to wonder about it.)
John
--
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
http://www.wordworks.jp/
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