Erich Auerbach

Erich Auerbach

In "mimesis" Auerbach gives two different styles of reading. There is Greek, or Helenic, reading and there is Hebrew, or secular, reading. With Greek, it is precise. The present moment is all there is. There is nothing to interpret. The characters do not develop. However, with Hebrew, the reading lacks visual specifactions. But it shows more foreground and depth. The characters will develop. Auerbach said, "Let no one object that this goes too far, that not the stories, but the religious doctrine, raises the claim to absolute authority; because the stories are not, like Homer's, simply narrated "reality." Doctrine and promise are incarnate in them and inseperable from them; for that very reason they are fraught with "background" and mysterious, containing a second, concealed meaning." What he is saying is that secular reading always has another meaning, like in Dante. It has a deeper meaning beneath the surface.