Auerbach’s Mimesis as an Anthropology of Violence. Lecture by Marta Figlerowicz

In this lecture, Marta Figlerowicz (Yale University) approaches Auerbach’s Mimesis through a new lens: She argues Auerbach’s text depicts figural thinking and ritual violence perpetuated against vulnerable populations as inextricable from each other. To an extent that has been underappreciated, she proposes, Mimesis also reflects on Auerbach’s own complicity with anti-Semitic Western ethnocentrism. To make this point, Figlerowicz takes a closer look at the book’s second chapter, “Fortunata”.