ULYSSES' SCAR: THE CLASSICAL AND THE SACRED IN MIMETIC REPRESENTATION

Abstract

This work proposes a reflection on the modes of representation of reality in Western literature, based on a reading of the essay "The Scar of Ulysses," by Erich Auerbach, part of the work Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature (1946). Through a comparative analysis between a fragment of Homer's Odyssey and the biblical episode of the sacrifice of Isaac, the study investigates two distinct forms of narrative construction: the epic clarity of the Greeks and the enigmatic depth of the Judeo-Christian tradition. It seeks to understand how these aesthetic matrices configure different conceptions of subject, time, memory, and truth, contributing to the formation of the European literary tradition and to the understanding of literature as a space for the symbolic elaboration of human experience.