A contribuição de Erich Auerbach para a recepção bíblica na modernidade

Abstract

The current dissertation seeks to present the contribution of the Jew-German philologist, Erick Auerbach (1892-1957) to the biblical reception to Modernity. Auerbach, who was one of the main literary critics of the XX century, redeems the exemplary interpretation on which historical, factual, distant in time events are connected through a verticalisation. The figural model was the mean by which the Bible was established, granting to it some unity, and it was used for a long period in the Middle Age. Auerbach saw in this model the best form of representation and interpretation of the Realism, reason why he implemented it in his literary critical. There is an understanding that the biblical literature, with its mixture of styles, accrued the path on which the modern literary realism flourished, which, in Auerbach, was seen on several realisms. The exemplary interpretation brings a new focus over the cultural and historical distancing. Auerbach saw them as positives for the establishing of the figural interpretation, because in the figural model, the historical lapse is a condition for the interpretation. And one of the forms to connect the reader to the text and establish the causal links of the figural poles is the concept of "Ansatz" which, in the case of the biblical reception, lays down a unity for the text comprehension. This comprehension demands a humble stance from the reader. Auerbach also recognizes the polysemy nature of the biblical text, but points to the casting of the interpretation, caused by the creation of dogmas promoted by the Church, which ended generating the abandonment of the figural model, and a misuse, when not a loss, of the biblical narratives approaches. To Auerbach, the narratives summarizes the power of attraction of the biblical text, because the biblical characters beyond being equal to the other men, live the same tragedies, in which suffer a shaping process. From this identification, the reader starts to incorporate the figural model once it becomes incorporated to the figural poles. The full reception of the biblical message will entail in the consummation in the reader's life, setting his reality. And in the reader will happen both the fulfillment and completion phenomena, presents in the figural interpretation. And on these two elements (fulfillment and completion) lies the basis of the Christian hope experience and living.