Mimesis

A classic work of modern literary scholarship and generally one of the world's best texts on the aesthetics of literature. The author's theoretical conclusions follow directly from his masterly literary analyses, in which Auerbach demonstrates an astonishing knowledge of the material, imaginative, multifaceted perspectives, and subtlety of nuance. The unified concept of the book is created by its key concept - the notion of the stylistic plane.

The subject of Auerbach's stylistic analyses and the interpretations that flow from them are the various forms of depiction of human agency in Western European literatures. Auerbach bases his arguments on a thoughtful, illuminating reading of key passages from primary texts. His aim was to show how literature from antiquity to the twentieth century progressed towards increasingly naturalistic and democratic forms of representation. Already on its first publication in 1946, the work aroused a considerable response from the philological community. For many readers in and out of academia, Mimesis is one of the finest works of literary criticism ever written.

Czech edition