Ernst Robert Curtius

Ernst Robert Curtius (April 14, 1886 – April 19, 1956) was a German literary scholar, a philologist and Romance language literary critic.

His is best known for his 1948 work "Europäische Literatur und Lateinisches Mittelalter". [English translation "European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages", by Willard R. Trask. New York: Harper Row, Publishers, 1953 ISBN: 0691018995 ] It was a major study of the Medieval Latin literature and its effect on subsequent writing in modern European languages. It was largely responsible for introducing the "literary topos" concept as a scholarly and critical discussion of literary commonplaces.

Curtius studied philology and philosophy in Strasbourg, Berlin, and Heidelberg. He was a professor in Marburg, Heidelberg, and Bonn and was a proponent of French literature to the German public. He died in Rome.

Ernst Curtius, his grandfather, and Georg Curtius, his great-uncle, were both notable scholars. He was Alsatian, being born in Thann, into a north German family.

Works

* "Die literarischen Wegbereiter des neuen Frankreich" (1919)
* "Die Französische Kultur" (1931, translation as "The Civilization of France: An Introduction" (1932)
* "Europäische Literatur und lateinisches Mittelalter" (1948)
* "Französischer Geist im 20. Jahrhundert" (1952)

Notes

External links

*de icon [http://www.bonn.de/stadtmuseum/inhalte/curtius.htm]