La teoria del sublime secondo Auerbach

Abstract

Though the evidence is scattered and the topic is rarely discussed, Auerbach’s engagement with the sublime runs through the full length of his career. In this paper, I argue that his reflections on the sublime stand at the center of his thinking as a kind of “hidden theory” (una teoria nascosta) that defines and shapes his literary criticism. Auerbach’s theory of the sublime gives us a new avenue for approaching the deepest layers of his thinking not only about literary realism, style, or aesthetic questions but also about ethics and reality, what we might call an ethics of the Real. For in the last analysis, or so I wish to propose, Auerbach’s primary object is not literary texts but life itself.