Philology And Humanism: The Theory And Inspiration Of Auerbach's Mimesis

Philological method occupies a very special place in Mimesis, The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, it is the basic tool used by Auerbach to achieve the breadth and depth in literay study. Auerbach's method is that he did a careful philological analysis of the selected text, then put it into the framework of "reality and representation", and finally extended it to the historical background and social condition of the text, revealing the continuous accumulation and changes of human life. The ultimate purpose of philology is to be aware of human condition. Vico's concept on "people" provids a fundamental theoretical basis for Auerbach's humanist perspective. During his academic career, Auerbach persists in the "human" dimension of literary study, and the essence of his philological method is to analyze human and history through language.There is an inner link between philology and humanism. Philology differs from linguistics for it never treats language as an isolated object, that is, it never excludes the human factors. In addition, philological methods disapprove of the saying "dispel all the certainty" and "there is no definite meaning in the text" declared by post-modern scholars. Auerbach's philological method obtains the critical power in Said's interpretation. Philology is the starting point and the foundation of humanism, and the real philological reading can reveal the hidden, distorted things under the text.