Le peuple en armes : A Rediscovered French Typescript on the History of War Literature by Erich Auerbach (Istanbul, 1940–41)

Abstract: This introductory essay is part of the dossier “Literature, War, and Exile,” which presents a rediscovered French text written by Erich Auerbach during his exile in Istanbul—the years when his masterpiece Mimesis took shape. The essay is organized into three sections. The first reconstructs the intellectual and genetic context of Auerbach’s French text, originally composed for a lecture on the topic “Literature and War,” delivered in 1940–41 and devoted to exploring the history of war literature from antiquity to the modern era. This lecture belongs to a group of eleven conferences and articles from Auerbach’s exile years, originally published in Turkish and first made fully available in a Western language through the 2014 German edition. The second section traces the affinities between the French text and Mimesis , focusing on the historico-philosophical framework and the process of literary democratization that Auerbach locates within the long evolution of Western civilization. The final section examines the dynamic relation between the troubling contemporary events in Turkey and Europe and Auerbach’s historical inquiry, situating his reflection within the horizon of exile and war, and highlighting the three major topics of war, nation, and global context that structure his French text.