Thoughts on Auerbach's The Brown Stocking.

I wasn't really able to understand some of the readings, and to be honest, I must admit that I got quite lost in them. But the one thing that stood out for me was Auerbach's close-reading of To the Lighthouse. It is very different from the other kinds of critical essays that one would usually find on any other literary work. Auerbach painstakingly analyzed almost every single line! The intention must have been to acutely highlight the many unconscious and silent 'slips' in Mrs Ramsey's thought process and also the inconspicuous weaving from "exterior action" to "interior thought." These are the techniques frequently used in modernism, which according to Auerbach, "puts emphasis on the random occurrence, to exploit it not in the service of a planned continuity of action but in itself" (552). Just as "exterior events lose their hegemony" (538), do the overarching narratives of the British Empire also 'lose their hegemony' and the strata of society as a result, becomes "inextricably mingled" (552), such that "there are no longer even exotic people" (552). In other words, I think Auerbach is trying to say that modernist techniques show that the world is far from manichean, and that these techniques promote randomness, hence finding common ground and shedding light on how similar we all are. This by implication helps to coalesce the binaries of self/other, civilized/exotic.

Auerbach's essay is also interesting because the book that it is part of is titled Mimesis- The representation of Reality In Western Literature. The word representation stood out to me because I instantly recalled something I learned in another module- that it can stand for two different meanings. To represent something is to stand for something (as in to portray or to exhibit) and also to stand in for someone. Therefore, when one represents, one is not only portraying or exhibiting something, but also making a representation for someone, meaning on the behalf of that person. As a result, I can't help but wonder which 'representation' of the 20th century Auerbach is doing or both???? Moreover, Auerbach claims somewhere in his essay (I remember reading it somewhere, but I can't find it anymore) that he has chosen this extract from To The Lighthouse randomly (i truely hope I'm not imagining this!), even adding that "he who represents the course of human life, or a sequence of events extending over a prolonged period of time, and represents it from beginning to end, must prune and isolate arbitarily" (548-549).

It is here that I'm confused because when Auerbach claims (as per his title) that he is trying to compile a representation of reality in western literature- more specifically modernism (in this case, and in this chapter), I'm really wondering if he not (through this 'random' process of compiling and selecting) also ironically positing the sort of "unification and simplification" (553) that he warns off at the end?

opps. I just realize I didn't really talk about the Empire part? But I'm thinking it works in the same way? I'm not sure. Just as Auerbach's Mimesis might be a simplification of the vastness of western literature (or in this case modernism), the idea that modernity corresponds to the end of the authoritative empire and the beginning of a global market is also an over-simplification?